Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday amid speculation the Biden administration might consider refilling the country's oil reserve, and on data showing a drop in gasoline stockpiles last week.
Oil's uptick was also due to expectations that European power producers will likely switch away from natural gas and go for oil following Russia's decision to halt flows through the Nord Stream pipeline.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects widespread switching from gas to oil for heating purposes, saying it will average 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October 2022 to March 2023, about twice the level of a year ago.
The IEA also said global observed inventories fell by 25.6 million barrels in July.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.17 or about 1.3% at $88.48 a barrel.
Brent crude futures were up $0.71 or 0.76% at $93.88 a little while ago.
Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed U.S. crude inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels in the week ended September 9th.
The data said gasoline inventories dropped by 1.8 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles rose by 4.2 million barrels.
The EIA report also said crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub dropped by 200,000 barrels last week.
On Tuesday, a report from the American Petroleum Institute said crude inventories rose by 6 million barrels last week.
