Data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday, September 4, showed that U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week as refineries entered maintenance, while gasoline inventories fell ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

The EIA report showed that U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels to 420.7 million barrels in the week ending August 29, compared with analysts' expectations for a 2 million barrel decrease.

"The report appears slightly bearish due to the increase in crude oil inventories," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital.

He added that crude oil inventories will face further pressure as refineries cut production due to fall maintenance.

The EIA said crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub rose by 1.6 million barrels last week.

Data showed that U.S. net crude oil imports increased by 434,000 barrels per day last week.

Refinery crude oil processing fell by 11,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization fell by 0.3 percentage points to 94.3%.

The EIA said U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels to 218.5 million barrels last week, compared with expectations for a 1.1 million-barrel decrease.

The data showed that distillate fuel inventories, including diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.7 million barrels to 115.9 million barrels in the week ending August 29, compared with expectations for a 600,000-barrel decrease.

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