The West Texas Intermediate for July delivery was up 0.9 U.S. dollar to settle at 33.71 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery rose 0.55 dollar to close at 35.29 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
U.S. crude oil inventories increased 7.9 million barrels during the week ending May 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Thursday. The reading exceeded analysts' expectations.
The EIA report also showed supplies at Cushing, a key U.S. oil hub, dropped by 3.4 million barrel in the latest week.
"The oil market is pricing in the positive developments and forthcoming rebalancing of supply and demand too quickly," Eugen Weinberg, an energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said in a note on Thursday.
"We believe that the oil market remains susceptible to profit-taking given that the latest price rise was driven to a large extent by speculation," he added.
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