The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.0 million barrels to 540.6 million in the week to April 22.

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

Gasoline inventories increased by 1.61 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, rose by 1.75 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports fell by 688,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 88.1% of capacity, down from 89.4% the previous week.

Oil production fell by 0.2% last week to 8.938 million barrels a day from 8.953 million barrels a day in the previous week.