Contracts on benchmark light, sweet crude oil for April delivery were up 26 cents at $54.85 a barrel, after falling as much as 43 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the release of the data. The contract, which ended overnight trade at $54.85 a barrel, is hovering just beneath its record open-outcry high of $55.65.
Nymex heating oil and gasoline futures for April also rose on the data, overcoming earlier losses.
Gasoil contracts were shaky in the March front month, but more recently registered a modest gain.
Crude inventories added 3.2 million barrels last week to 302.6 million barrels, even as refinery runs rose unexpectedly, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistics branch of the U.S. Department of Energy.
"There's enough bullish information in the stats to balance off the bearish data," said DeCarlo Larry, head of energy futures in New York for Barclays Capital. "It's enough to keep us steady or go higher."
Higher imports fed crude's fourth consecutive week of increases, with imports climbing above 10 million barrels and leaving oil stocks above the 300-million-barrel mark for the first time since late July. The EIA said oil stocks were in the upper half of the average range for this time of year.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 800,000 barrels last week -- more than twice the amount analysts had expected. That left distillates in the lower half of the average range for this time of year, though they were only slightly more than a million barrels off last year's level.
The EIA said demand for crude, distillates and gasoline all rose last week, a detail that didn't escape analysts expecting oil prices to rise Wednesday. "Here's your dichotomy right now: You have bearish data on the surface, but these demand numbers are definitely keeping people on their toes," Mr. Larry said.