The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories jumped by 13.834 million barrels in the week ended March 27. That was the largest increase since the week ended February 3, 2017. Economists had forecast an advance of 3.997 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks surged by 7.524 million barrels, while analysts had expected a gain of 1.949 million barrels. Distillate stocks fell by 2.194 million barrels, while analysts had forecast an increase of 1.026 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. was unchanged at 13.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.0 million barrels per day last week, down by 70 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.

• Talks with Saudi Arabia could be set up in a timely manner if necessary