The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories slid by 5.1 million barrels to 482.3 million in the week to January 01.

Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to decline by 1.5 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories increased by 10.6 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, climbed by 917,000 barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports decreased by 382,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 92.5% of capacity, down from 92.6% the previous week.