The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Thursday that crude inventories dropped by 6.866 million barrels in the week ended July 2, following a draw of 6.718 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had forecast a decrease of 4.033 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks plunged by 6.076 million barrels, while analysts had expected a fall of 2.176 million barrels. Distillate stocks rose by 1.616 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a build of 0.171 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. increased by 200,000 barrels a day to 11,300 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.9 million barrels per day last week, decreased by 0.5 million barrels per day from the previous week.