The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories increased by 8.03 million barrels to 476.6 million in the week to October 16. It was the fourth consecutive increase.

Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 3.65 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 78,000 barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports climbed by 156,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 86.4% of capacity, up from 86.0% the previous week.