The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories fell by 3247 million barrels in the week ended January 8. Economists had forecast a decline of 2.266 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks rose by 4.395 million barrels, while analysts had expected a build of 2.695 million barrels. Distillate stocks jumped by 4.786 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a gain of 2.671 million barrels.

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

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.2 million barrels per day last week, increased by 0.9 million barrels per day from the previous week.