Oil futures finished higher on Wednesday after U.S. government data revealed a sharp decline in crude inventory, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September rose 39 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $49.56 a barrel.
October Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained 56 cents, or 1.1%, to end trading at $52.70 on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Oil faced some pressure from broader selling in risk assets as the U.S. and North Korea ratcheted up tensions.
Domestic crude oil inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels to 1.15 billion barrels in the week ending August 4, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The fall in U.S. commercial crude stocks “provides further evidence that the market is rebalancing. We expect this trend to continue over the next few months at least, which should give a boost to prices,” said Thomas Pugh, commodities economist at Capital Economics.
Natural gas for September delivery rose 6.1 cents, or 2.2%, to settle at $2.883 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.