Oil futures surged on Wednesday as U.S. crude stockpiles fell and demand from China rose strongly.
Brent put on 70 cents, or 1.36%, to $52.14 as U.S. crude climbed 65 cents, or 1.29%, to $51.01 at 06:45 ET.
American Petroleum Institute estimates released Tuesday showed crude inventories fell by 3.56 million barrels in the latest week, the third fall in a row.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is to release its weekly inventories report at 10:30 ET.
A 38.7% jump in Chinese crude imports in May and production outages in Nigeria helped assuage supply glut concerns.