The May-delivered price closed up $US2.40 to $55.91 a barrel - putting an end to the shrinking inventory storage fear-based selling over previous days.
The front-month contract for West Texas Intermediate crude climbed $1.20, or nearly 3%, to close at $44.66/bbl.
The US central bank's Federal Open Market Committee Meeting statement overnight weakened the US dollar as growth forecasts were downgraded - with this making US dollar-priced oil more valuable.
There is still considerable expectation that the Fed will finally abandon its US dollar-restraining Zero Interest Rate Policy by making its first interest rate increase in almost a decade around early June.
Various Fed watchers noted that the FOMC removed the word "patient" from its recent statement.
"Just because we removed the word patient from the statement does not mean we are going to be impatient," Fed chair Janet Yellen said last night in response.
