The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed that crude inventories rose by 2.800 million barrels in the week ended March 22. Economists had forecast a decrease of 2.500 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks fell by 2.883 million barrels, while analysts had expected a drop of 3.000 million barrels. Distillate stocks declined by 2.075 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 1.000 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. was unchanged at 12.100 million barrels a day. 

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.5 million barrels per day last week, down by 392,000 barrels per day from the previous week.