The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories rose by 9.36 million barrels to 532.5 million in the week to March 18.

Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 3.5 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories decreased by 4.6 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, declined by 1.3 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports increased by 691,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 88.4% of capacity, down from 89.0% the previous week.