The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.32 million barrels to 523.2 million in the week to March 11.
Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 3.5 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories decreased by 747,000 barrels, according to the EIA.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, climbed by 545,000 barrels.
U.S. crude oil imports decreased by 355,000 barrels per day.
Refineries in the U.S. were running at 89.0% of capacity, down from 89.1% the previous week.