The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories declined by 3.116 million barrels in the week ended July 12. Economists had forecast a fall of 3.000 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks increased by 3.565 million barrels, while analysts had expected a drop of 2.400 million barrels. Distillate stocks surged by 5.686 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decline of 1.000 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. decreased by 300,000 barrels a day to 12.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.8 million barrels per day last week, down by 470,000 barrels per day from the previous week.