The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed that crude inventories rose by 7.238 million barrels in the week ended March 29. That was the biggest increase since the week ended January 18th. Economists had forecast a decrease of 0.800 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks fell by 1.781 million barrels, while analysts had expected a drop of 2.500 million barrels. Distillate stocks declined by 1.998 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.600 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. increased by 100,000 barrels a day to 12.200 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.8 million barrels per day last week, up by 223,000 barrels per day from the previous week.