The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories declined by 1.662 million barrels in the week ended May 21, following a build of 1.321 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had forecast a draw of 1.050 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks dropped by 1.745 million barrels, while analysts had expected a decrease of 0.614 million barrels. Distillate stocks tumbled by 3.013 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a fall of 1.900 million barrels.

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

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.3 million barrels per day last week, down by 138,000 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.