The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Friday that crude inventories surged by 4.351 million barrels in the week ended January 15. Economists had forecast a drop of 1.167 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks fell by 0.260 million barrels, while analysts had expected an advance of 2.771 million barrels. Distillate stocks rose by 0.458 million barrels, while analysts had forecast an increase of 1.214 million barrels.

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

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.0 million barrels per day last week, down by 194,000 barrels per day from the previous week.