The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery added 65 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at 79.01 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January delivery increased 96 cents, or 1.2 percent, to close at 81.24 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
On Wednesday, the U.S. crude benchmark and Brent shed 3 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
Wednesday's sell-off came despite data showed a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles.
U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 2.1 million barrels during the week ending Nov. 12, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday.
According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.8 million barrels.
"It seems that these data have been interpreted as increasing the probability that strategic reserves will be released," Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said Thursday in a note.
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