The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories fell by 2.732 million barrels in the week ended August 16. Economists had forecast a drop of 1.500 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks rose by 0.312 million barrels, while analysts had expected a decline of 0.200 million barrels. Distillate stocks surged by 2.610 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.300 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. was unchanged at 12.300 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.2 million barrels per day last week, down by 497,000 barrels per day from the previous week.