The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories climbed by 3.548 million barrels in the week ended January 24. Economists had forecast an advance of 0.460 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks rose by 1.203 million barrels, while analysts had expected a gain of 1.320 million barrels. Distillate stocks fell by 1.289 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 1.095 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. was unchanged at 13.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week, up by 229,000 barrels per day from the previous week.