The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories dropped by 6.065 million barrels in the week ended December 25. Economists had forecast a decrease of 2.583 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks declined by 1.192 million barrels, while analysts had expected a build of 1.662 million barrels. Distillate stocks surged by 3.095 million barrels, while analysts had forecast an increase of 0.529 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. remained unchanged at 11.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.3 million barrels per day last week, down by 238,000 barrels per day from the previous week.