REUTERS

Oil prices rose more than 1% on Wednesday after data showed crude inventories in the United States fell much more than expected, suggesting demand is improving even as the coronavirus outbreak spreads around the world.

Brent crude LCOc1 rose 48 cents, or 1.2%, to $41.75 a barrel by 0345 GMT after declining more than 1% on Tuesday. U.S. crude was up 54 cents, or 1.4%, at $39.81 a barrel, having dropped by 1.1% in the previous session, as reported by Reuters.

Read alsoReuters: Oil prices slip on demand worries, prospect of Libyan supply return

Видео дня

U.S. crude and gasoline stocks declined more than expected last week, while distillate inventories rose, data released by the American Petroleum Institute (API) late on Tuesday showed.

Crude inventories dropped by 8.2 million barrels to 537 million barrels, against analysts' forecasts for a draw of 710,000 barrels.

Official inventory data from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration is due out later on Wednesday.

Also supporting prices was a drop in output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to the lowest in two decades in June.