The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories increased by 1.164 million barrels in the week ended January 3. Economists had forecast a drop of 3.572 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks surged by 9.137 million barrels, while analysts had expected an increase of 2.654 million barrels. Distillate stocks jumped by 5.330 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a climb of 3.874 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. was unchanged at 12.900 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week, up by 379,000 barrels per day from the previous week.