Investing.com – In a knee-jerk reaction, West Texas Intermediate oil futures extended gains surging to intraday highs, in North American trade on Wednesday, after data showed that oil supplies in the U.S. unexpectedly fell, though prices quickly eased to trade only slightly higher than before the release. Crude oil for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 109 cents, or 2.47%, to trade at $45.19 a barrel by 10:34AM ET (14:34GMT) compared to $44.91 ahead of the report. West Texas Intermediate oil hit an intraday high of $45.47 immediately after the report. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories fell by 6.2 million barrels in the week ended September 16. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock increase of 3.35 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply draw of a whopping 7.5 million barrels. Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, rose by 0.526 million barrels last week, the EIA said. Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 504,6 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be “historically high levels for this time of year�. The report also showed that gasoline inventories tumbled by 3.204 million barrels, compared to expectations for a decline of 0.567 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose by 2.238 million barrels, compared to forecasts for an increase of 0.250 million.

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