LONDON: Crude oil prices bounced back on Wednesday from steep falls in the previous session as industry data showed that U.S. crude stocks fell more than expected last week.
Brent futures rose 85 cents to $64.87 a barrel by 1037 GMT, after touching $65.02 earlier in the session. U.S. crude prices rose 58 cents to $58.57 a barrel, easing back from an intraday high $58.90.
On Tuesday oil fell over 3 percent on a dollar rally and concerns of a building glut, which Goldman Sachs said would lead to a return towards 2015 lows.
"The market came under a lot of pressure yesterday and it's not unusual to see a bit of a correction the day after," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist with Netherlands-based ABN Amro.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels last week, said industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) said late on Tuesday. A Reuters survey of analysts had forecast a fall of 1 million barrels.
Official inventory numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) are due at 1430 GMT today.
"The key for me is not so much that there are declines in inventories, it's that those declines are accelerating," said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets, .
Prices also drew support from strong economic data from Asia. Japan's economy, the world's third largest, expanded at an annualised rate of 2.4 percent in the first three months of this year.
"Japan is one of the major importers of crude oil and growth in this region would definitely be favourable for crude demand," Singapore-based brokerage Phillip Futures said.
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