The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories dropped by 0.562 million barrels in the week ended December 18. Economists had forecast a decline of 3.186 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks fell by 1.125 million barrels, while analysts had expected a gain of 1.210 million barrels. Distillate stocks plunged by 2.325 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.904 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. remained unchanged at 11.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.6 million barrels per day last week, up by 140,000 barrels per day from the previous week.