(MENAFN- AFP) Oil scored new 2015 peaks Wednesday on news that US commercial crude stocks unexpectedly slumped last week, registering the first drop for four months.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in June rallied to a five-month pinnacle at $62.58 per barrel. It later stood at $61.12, up 72 cents from Tuesday's closing level.
Brent North Sea crude for June jumped to a similar high at $69.63, before pulling back in late afternoon trade to $68.14, up 62 cents.
American crude reserves tumbled by 3.9 million barrels in the week to May 1, the US government's Department of Energy announced in a report.
That indicated rebounding demand in the world's top crude consuming nation, and confounded market expectations for an increase of 1.5 million barrels, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg News.
"An unexpected fall in US oil inventories saw WTI extend the gains," said IG analyst Joshua Mahony.
"Continued build up of oil in the US has been threatening to derail this recent (price) rally and the news that this has begun to fall shows that the depressed prices of late have finally made an impact upon suppliers in the US.
"This will be music to the ears of those at OPEC whose goal it is to price US producers out of the market.
"However, with the largest ever US stockpile still in place, the threat of another crash remains."
Crude oil prices rose last week after the DoE posted a 500,000-barrel drop in petroleum stocks to 61.7 million barrels at the Cushing, Oklahoma trading hub, the first such decline since late November.
Traders took the decline as a sign producers are cutting back at key US petroleum sites, raising hopes this could pave the way for an easing of a global supply glut.
In earlier deals on Wednesday, the oil market had already hit four-month highs as fresh tensions in oil producer Libya raised concerns about a supply disruption in the Middle East.
Media reports on Tuesday said protests in Libya had shut oil deliveries to a port in the east of the country.
Fighting since 2011 in OPEC member Libya has seen output reduced from a high of almost 1.5 million barrels a day to around 150,000 a day, according to analysts.
"Geopolitical concerns in the Middle East continue to form a firm base for oil prices, be it Libya, Yemen or Iraq," CMC Markets analyst Nicholas Teo told AFP.
Oil prices have in recent weeks also gained support due to ongoing strife in Yemen, whose coast forms one side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait through which some 4.7 million barrels pass each day.
However, prices remain well down after plunging almost 60 percent between June and the start of 2015 on the back of a global supply glut.
The problem was exacerbated in November when the OPEC cartel insisted that it would maintain output levels despite tumbling prices. The 12-nation group pumps about 30 percent of global crude.
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