The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories rose by 1.912 million barrels in the week ended March 19, following a build of 2.396 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had forecast a drop of 0.272 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks increased by 0.203 million barrels, while analysts had expected a gain of 1.186 million barrels. Distillate stocks climbed by 3.806 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.122 million barrels.

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

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.6 million barrels per day last week, up by 0.3 million barrels per day from the previous week.