The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories dropped by 3.135 million barrels in the week ended December 11. Economists had forecast a decline of 1.937 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks rose by 1.020 million barrels, while analysts had expected a gain of 1.614 million barrels. Distillate stocks increased by 0.167 million barrels, while analysts had forecast an advance of 0.886 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. decreased by 100,000 barrels a day to 11.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.4 million barrels per day last week, decreased by 1.1 million barrels per day from the previous week.