The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories declined by 4.9 million barrels to 529.9 million in the week to April 01.

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

Gasoline inventories increased by 1.4 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, increased by 357,000 barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports fell by 446,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 91.4% of capacity, up from 90.4% the previous week.