The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Thursday. U.S. crude inventories increased by 3.98 million barrels to 486.5 million in the week to January 15.
Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 2.75 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories increased by 4.6 million barrels, according to the EIA.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, climbed by 191,000 barrels.
U.S. crude oil imports decreased by 409,000 barrels per day.
Refineries in the U.S. were running at 90.6% of capacity, down from 91.2% the previous week.