U.S. crude oil inventories climbed for a sixth straight week, but grew less than forecast last week, amid a drop in net imports and the government's sale of barrels from its reserve, while gasoline and distillate stocks drew down.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Oct. 31 that crude inventories rose 3.2 million barrels in the week to Oct. 26, less than analysts' expectations for a 4.1 million-barrel build.

Much of that increase was in the Midwest, where stocks at the Cushing, Okla., delivery hub rose 1.9 million barrels, the EIA said. That was also the sixth straight week of builds at the delivery point for U.S. crude futures.

Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 639,000 barrels per day (bbl/d), as exports rose 305,000 bbl/d.

Oil prices rose after the data with U.S. heating oil prices leading the energy complex higher after a big decline in inventories.

"Bullish draws to the products have acted as a counterweight to bearish sentiment ... half of today's crude build was contributed from another SPR release," Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData.

The U.S. Department of Energy said in August it would offer 11 million barrels of oil for sale from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) ahead of sanctions on Iran that are expected to reduce global supplies of crude. The delivery period for the proposed sale of sour crudes is from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell 4.1 million barrels, vs. expectations for a 1.4 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

Gasoline stocks fell 3.2 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.1 million barrels drop.

Refinery crude runs rose by 149,000 bbl/d as utilization rates rose by 0.2 percentage point to 89.4% of total capacity.

U.S crude production rose 300,000 bbl/d to 11.2 million bbl/d, the weekly record high reached early October.