In New York, crude recorded its biggest gain in two weeks and is now trading at $US21.30 a barrel. In Asia, West Texas Intermediate was trading at $US20.60 bbl.
According to analysts, lower US oil stocks provide some evidence that the OPEC production cuts over the past year are starting to bite. OPEC cut its target production by 1.5 million barrels of oil per day while non-OPEC producers pledged a 500,000 bpod cut over the first quarter.
Last industry figures put OPEC production about 1 million bopd above its target production of 21.7 million bpd.
