The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories increased by 0.96 million barrels to 488.2 million in the week to November 20. It was the ninth consecutive increase.

Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 1.0 million barrels.

The U.S. oil production declined by 17,000 barrels per day to 9.165 million barrels per day.

Gasoline inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, climbed by 1.744 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports increased by 424,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 92.0% of capacity, up from 90.3% the previous week.