Crude oil futures gained slightly Wednesday after a US government report showed the decline in domestic stockpiles of oil and gasoline.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for May delivery rose 15 cents to end at 52.44 dollars a barrel. Wednesday was the last trading day for May futures contract. Meanwhile, on London's International Petroleum Exchange the Brent crude futures for June delivery added 84 cents to settle at 53.78 dollars per barrel.

On Wednesday, the Department of Energy reported that the US inventories of crude oil fell by 1.8 million barrels during the week ending April 15 to 318.9 million barrels. Gasoline supplies dropped by 1.5 million barrels last week to 211.6 million barrels.

The government week petroleum inventory report also showed that gasoline demand had averaged more than 9 million barrels a day over the past four week, about 1.2 percent above year ago levels.

While US inventories of crude oil and gasoline remained higher than a year ago, the first decline of crude inventories in 10 weeks still heightened traders' concerns about the adequacy of global supplies.

Unusually high prices could not continue forever, "as long as you continue to put greater supply in the market," said a senior official from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC).

Other OPEC officials noted that market was very balanced, so they remained optimistic about the global oil inventories.

Source: Xinhua