U.S. crude oil inventories dropped by 8.557 million barrels last week, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration, while the median estimate had pointed to an increase of 150,000 barrels.

The EIA report also showed the following changes for last week: gasoline inventories rose by 3.518 million barrels, against market expectations of a 911,000-barrel decline.

Distillate inventories fell by 2.527 million barrels, compared with market expectations of a 1.72 million-barrel decrease.

Crude stocks at Cushing increased by 1.862 million barrels.

Refinery utilization rose 0.8 percentage points, while the market had expected a decline of 0.6 percentage points.

Refinery crude runs increased by 135,000 barrels per day.

Crude imports decreased by 791,000 barrels per day.

Crude production fell by 300,000 barrels per day.