The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Thursday that crude inventories decreased by 0.405 million barrels in the week ended January 17. Economists had forecast a drop of 1.009 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks rose by 1.745 million barrels, while analysts had expected a climb of 3.090 million barrels. Distillate stocks fell by 1.185 million barrels, while analysts had forecast an increase of 1.014 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. was unchanged at 13.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, down by 120,000 barrels per day from the previous week.