Shafaq News/ Oil prices jumped more than 4% on Wednesday, following a drawdown in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories and as Hurricane Sally forced a swath of U.S. offshore production to shut, Reuters reported.  

Brent crude LCOc1 settled at $42.22 a barrel, up $1.69, or 4.2%. U.S. crude CLc1 finished $1.88, or 4.9%.at $40.16 a barrel. 

U.S. crude stocks fell 4.4 million barrels last week to 496 million barrels, their lowest since April, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel rise, [EIA/S]. 

A by Reuters, Sally, which made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane, also boosted oil prices as more than a quarter of offshore output shut due to the storm.  

Oil collapsed to historic lows as the coronavirus crisis hit demand. A record supply cut by OPEC and its allies, a grouping known as OPEC+, and an easing of lockdowns have helped Brent recover from a 21-year low below $16 in April.