The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories increased by 234,000 barrels to 482.6 million in the week to January 08.
Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 2.6 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories increased by 8.4 million barrels, according to the EIA.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, climbed by 97,000 barrels.
U.S. crude oil imports increased by 678,000 barrels per day.
Refineries in the U.S. were running at 91.2% of capacity, down from 92.5% the previous week.