The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories rose by 1.623 million barrels in the week ended March 20. Economists had forecast a build of 2.774 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks declined by 1.537 million barrels, while analysts had expected a drop of 0.657 million barrels. Distillate stocks fell by 0.679 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 1.886 million barrels.

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

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.1 million barrels per day last week, down by 422,000 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.