U.S. crude oil imports increased while exports decreased during the week ending April 26, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.772 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, up by 274,000 b/d from the previous week, while crude oil exports averaged 3.918 million b/d, down by 1.261 million b/d, according to the EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

Over the past four weeks, U.S. crude oil imports averaged about 6.541 million b/d, up by 3.6 percent from the same four-week period last year; while crude oil exports averaged about 4.138 million b/d, down by 1.9 percent, according to the report.

The United States has been one of the world's important oil producers in the past years with the help of its shale oil production growth.