The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Friday that crude inventories decreased by 5.474 million barrels in the week ended December 20. Economists had forecast a drop of 1.724 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks rose by 1.963 million barrels, while analysts had expected an increase of 1.663 million barrels. Distillate stocks fell by 0.152 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a gain of 0.611 million barrels.

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

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.8 million barrels per day last week, up by 230,000 barrels per day from the previous week.