Crude oil prices rose on Wednesday after a US government report showed an unexpectedly large drop in crude inventories last week in the world's largest energy consumer. US crude futures ended up 85 cents to $57.35 a barrel, bouncing from a low of $55.72, while London crude was up 88 cents to $55.20 a barrel.
US commercial stockpiles of crude oil fell 4.2 million barrels last week to 317.6 million barrels as imports slumped, according to the Energy Information Administration, exceeding expectations among analysts of a 100,000 barrel draw.
The drop in crude stockpiles countered a 3.4 million barrel build in distillate inventories, including heating oil, shown in the weekly EIA report.
"The big draw in crude has been tempered by the larger-than-expected increase in distillate stocks," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago. "The big question is, is it bearish enough to keep the market lower."
Heating demand in Northeast, home to 80 percent of US heating oil consumption, has been running well below normal in recent weeks due to balmy weather.
Oil prices have dropped about 20 percent since their peak in late August, but remain up about a third on the year as the rapidly expanding economies of India and China compete for supplies.
Ministers of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries appear unconcerned by the recent lower prices and have indicated the cartel will keep the taps open when it meets next month.
An Iranian official was quoted as saying on Wednesday that Opec would even tolerate a drop toward $40 a barrel.
"Because crude prices are at a suitable level, Opec is not expected to adopt a new position at its next meeting," Iran's head of Opec affairs, Javad Yarjani, was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. "Even if the oil price comes down to $40, Opec countries will not take serious action."
Opec ministers meet in Kuwait on December 12.
"Opec has made sure there's no shortage of crude oil and the world refining system has responded to the (profit margin) incentives that the hurricanes have provided, plus demand is a bit lower year-on-year," said Michael Coleman, managing director at Singapore-based commodity fund manager Aisling Analytics.
Adding support, ice storms in Minnesota slowed the flow of crude oil from Canada into the US Midwest on the Enbridge pipeline system on Tuesday, the company said Wednesday.
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