The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday that crude inventories decreased by 2.979 million barrels in the week ended August 20, following a decline of 3.234 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had forecast a draw of 2.683 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks fell by 2.242 million barrels, while analysts had expected a reduction of 1.557 million barrels. Distillate stocks rose by 0.645 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a drop of 0.271 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. remained unchanged at 11.400 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.2 million barrels per day last week, down by 193,000 barrels per day from the previous week.