The American Petroleum Institute (API) said on Tuesday that US crude inventories dropped 7.6 million barrels, which would be the fifth straight weekly decline if confirmed by US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data on Wednesday.
Brent crude was trading at $51.83 a barrel, up 96 cents, at 12:04pm GMT. The global benchmark touched $51.87 during the session, its highest since 10 June.
