The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories climbed by 3.355 million barrels in the week ended January 31. Economists had forecast an advance of 2.831 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks edged down by 0.091 million barrels, while analysts had expected a gain of 2.057 million barrels. Distillate stocks declined by 1.512 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.014 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. dropped by 100,000 barrels a day to 12.900 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.6 million barrels per day last week, down by 46,000 barrels per day from the previous week.