The International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Fatih Birol said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that Iran was expected to add 500,000 barrels a day within a year after the lift-off of sanctions in January.

"It was misleading to believe that there would be a huge amount of new Iranian crude and natural gas production entering market in the short term," he said.

Birol said that the country would need time to develop new oil fields.

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Iran would likely participate in the meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Doha on April 17. OPEC and non-OPEC countries plan to discuss the freeze of the oil output.

Iran said this month that it was not ready to freeze its oil production until output of 4.0 million barrels a day was reached.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its crude oil inventories data on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.3 million barrels to 534.8 million in the week to March 25.

Analysts had expected U.S. crude oil inventories to rise by 3.0 million barrels.

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

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, declined by 272,000 barrels.

U.S. crude oil imports fell by 636,000 barrels per day.

Refineries in the U.S. were running at 90.4% of capacity, up from 88.4% the previous week.

Private sector in the U.S. added 200,000 jobs in March, according the ADP report on Wednesday. February's figure was revised down to 205,000 jobs from a previous reading of 214,000 jobs.

Analysts expected the private sector to add 194,000 jobs.

Services sector added 191,000 jobs in March, while goods-producing sector added 9,000.

"The job market continues on its amazing streak. The March job gain of 200,000 is consistent with average monthly job growth of the past more than four years. The only industry reducing payrolls is energy as has been the case for over a year. All indications are that the job machine will remain in high gear," the Chief Economist of Moody's Analytics Mark Zandi said.

Official labour market data will be released on Friday. Analysts expect that U.S. unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.9% in March. The U.S. economy is expected to add 205,000 jobs in March, after adding 242,000 jobs in February.

Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday that the Fed would hike its interest rate gradually. She did not mention the timing of possible interest rate hikes.

Yellen noted that the Fed should be cautious in hiking rates as risks from global economic and financial developments rose since December.

"Given the risks to the outlook, I consider it appropriate for the Committee to proceed cautiously in adjusting policy," Fed chairwoman said.

Yellen pointed out that the Fed could cut its interest rate if needed.

"If the expansion was to falter or if inflation was to remain stubbornly low, the FOMC would be able to provide only a modest degree of additional stimulus by cutting the federal funds rate back to near zero," she noted.

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