The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories rose by 6.6 million barrels to 536.5 million in the week to April 08.

Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 2.85 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories decreased by 4.2 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, declined by 1.77 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports climbed by 686,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 89.2% of capacity, down from 91.4% the previous week.