Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States, not taking into account those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, were up by 0.2 million barrels to 443.1 million barrels in the week ending April 18, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed in its report on Wednesday.

The country's inventories now stand about 5% below the five-year average for this time of year. US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.9 million barrels per day for the corresponding week, which is 326,000 barrels per day higher than the previous week's average.

Refineries operated at 88.1% of their operable capacity last week, while gasoline production increased, averaging 10.1 million barrels per day. Imports of crude oil in the country averaged 5.6 million barrels per day last week, going down by 412,000 barrels per day. Total commercial petroleum inventories slumped by 0.7 million barrels last week.