Investing.com - Oil prices rose to the highest levels of the session in North American trade on Wednesday, after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a large drop in domestic crude and gasoline supplies.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude August contract was at $47.16 a barrel by 10:35AM ET (1435GMT), up 76 cents, or around 1.6%. Prices were at around $46.66 prior to the release of the inventory data
Elsewhere, Brent oil for September delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London rose 79 cents to $49.61 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories fell by 4.7 million barrels in the week ended July 14.
Market analysts' expected a crude-stock decline of around 3.2 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply-gain of 1.6 million barrels.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, decreased by 2,300 barrels last week, the EIA said.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 490.6 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be at the upper half of the average range for this time of year.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories decreased by 4.4 million barrels, compared to expectations for a much more modest decline of 0.7 million barrels.
For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported a drop of 2.1 million barrels.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for August added 2.4 cents, or around 1.5%, to $1.611 a gallon, while August heating oil advanced 2.9 cents to $1.539 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for August delivery slipped 0.3 cents to $3.085 per million British thermal units.