The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories decreased by 1.085 million barrels in the week ended December 13. Economists had forecast a drop of 1.288 million barrels.
At the same time, gasoline stocks surged by 2.529 million barrels, while analysts had expected an increase of 2.000 million barrels. Distillate stocks climbed by 1.509 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decline of 0.400 million barrels.
Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. was unchanged at 12.800 million barrels a day.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.6 million barrels per day last week, down by 308,000 barrels per day from the previous week.