The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery added 66 cent to settle at 53.57 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery increased 36 cents to close at 56.42 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Oil got a boost from a weaker U.S. dollar as the dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.13 percent at 90.2400 in late trading on Thursday. Historically, the price of oil is inversely related to the price of the U.S. dollar.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 3.2 million barrels during the week ending Jan. 8, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Wednesday. Analysts polled by the Reuters had expected the EIA publication to show a 2.3 million-barrel drop in U.S. supplies last week.
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