The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.08 million barrels to 538.6 million in the week to April 15.

Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 2.5 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories decreased by 110,000 barrels, according to the EIA.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, declined by 248,000 barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports climbed by 247,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 89.4% of capacity, up from 89.2% the previous week.

Oil production fell by 0.3% last week to 8.953 million barrels a day from 8.977 in the previous week.