The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories climbed by 7.459 million barrels in the week ended February 7. Economists had forecast an advance of 2.987 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks edged down by 0.098 million barrels, while analysts had expected a gain of 0546 million barrels. Distillate stocks declined by 2.013 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.557 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. rose by 100,000 barrels a day to 13.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.0 million barrels per day last week, up by 363,000 barrels per day from the previous week.