By Stephanie Yang, Neanda Salvaterra and Jenny W. Hsu 

Oil prices rose to the highest level in over a week on Wednesday, boosted by signs of strong demand for crude products and renewed commitments by major oil producers to rein in production.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery gained 93 cents, or 1.9%, to $49.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, trading at the highest level since March 21. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 94 cents, or 1.8%, to $52.27 a barrel.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a 900,000 barrel increase in crude oil inventories in the week ended March 24, lower than expectations of an average 1 million barrels build from analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, gasoline stockpiles fell by 3.7 million barrels and distillates fell by 2.5 million barrels, exceeding analyst expectations and indicating healthy demand.

"That gasoline number is just amazing," said Carl Larry, principal consultant at Oil Outlooks and Opinions.

The positive data helped ease concerns that an increase in U.S. production will keep supply elevated, even as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have cut production to help end a global supply glut. Increasing demand should help chip away at high levels of crude inventories, said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc.

"Gasoline is really starting to assert its influence here in the market on a broad scale," he said.

Investors also welcomed comments from OPEC members who are showing a willingness to cut more of their supplies to make a dent in global inventories. United Arab Emirates announced plans to reduce its production by about 200,000 barrels from March to May, "which is actually more than was agreed," said Commerzbank analysts in a recent note.

Crude prices received support after Libya reported the closure of key pipelines, as tension between the government and a militia flared up again, removing about 250,000 oil barrels a day from the market.

"We are seeing tighter supply and this is very likely to continue well into April," said Georgi Slavov, the global head of energy research at Marex Spectron.

Gasoline futures rose 2.4%, to $1.6743 a gallon, and diesel futures gained 1.6%, to $1.5402 a gallon, taking prices for both to a three-week high.

Write to Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com, Neanda Salvaterra at neanda.salvaterra@wsj.com and Jenny W. Hsu at jenny.hsu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 29, 2017 12:07 ET (16:07 GMT)

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