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New York's main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery gained 21 cents to 81.89 dollars per barrel. London's Brent North Sea crude for May delivery was up 19 cents to 80.72 dollars.
The market's gains were supported by an American Petroleum Institute (API) report that showed a smaller-than-expected build in US crude stocks and a large decline in gasoline stockpiles, suggesting a pick-up in demand.
"The API inventory numbers in the US were much better than expected so that put a positive effect on the oil market," said Tetsu Emori, a fund manager with Astmax asset management in Tokyo.
The API report was released after the market closed Tuesday and showed US crude inventories rose 403,000 in the week ended March 12, beating expectations of a 1.9 million barrel increase.
Gasoline stocks fell 3.7 million barrels while distillate supplies fell 756,000 barrels. Analysts polled by Platts had forecast a drop of 1.5 million barrels for gasoline and a 1.6 million barrel drop in distillate stocks.
World oil prices rebounded from recent losses Tuesday as the US Federal Reserve held record low interest rates in the hope of stimulating a still fragile US recovery, which is dogged by high unemployment and tight credit.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is widely expected to maintain its official output quota of 24.84 million barrels a day when it meets in Vienna later Wednesday.
"This is going to be an easy meeting," UAE Minister of Energy Mohammad bin Dhaen al-Hamli told reporters on Tuesday after fellow OPEC member nations said there was no need to change the cartel's official production target.
Members have pointed to high oil inventories, insufficient demand and acceptable crude prices for the reasons why OPEC does not need to change its output ceiling.
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