Oil soars

Reuters

London

Oil hit a one-month high near $55 a barrel on Wednesday as a drop in US crude inventories raised hopes that OPEC-led supply restraint is clearing a glut, while an outage at a UK North Sea oilfield lent support.

US crude inventories fell by a more-than-expected 1.8 million barrels last week, American Petroleum Institute data showed on Tuesday.

The focus is now on whether the government's supply report on Wednesday confirms the decline.

"Should it confirm that US crude stocks did indeed fall for what would only be the second time this year, it will mark the start of a sustained tightening in US crude supplies," said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM.

Global benchmark Brent crude had risen 50 cents to $54.67 a barrel. It reached $54.80 intraday, the highest since March 8. US crude was up 47 cents at $51.50.Oil also gained after an outage at the 180,000-barrels-per-day Buzzard field in the North Sea.