U.S. crude oil imports increased while exports decreased during the week ending Mach 28, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.466 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, up by 271,000 b/d from the previous week, while crude oil exports averaged 3.881 million b/d, down by 728,000 b/d, according to the EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

Over the past four weeks, U.S. crude oil imports averaged about 5.879 million b/d, down by 6.3 percent from the same four-week period last year; crude oil exports averaged about 4.106 million b/d, up by 1.2 percent, according to the report.

The United States has been one of the world's important oil producers in the past years with the help of its shale oil production growth.