West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery added 81 cents, or 1.7%, to settle at $48.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was trading down at around $47.70 before the supply data. The biggest percentage gain for the month was seen on July 9, when prices rose about 2.2%. ICE September Brent crude tacked on 8 cents, or 0.2%, to $53.38 a barrel.

Early Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a drop of 4.2 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended July 24. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a crude-stock fall of 700,000 barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday said supplies declined 1.9 million barrels. “The reports seems to suggest that, at least in the short term, the bearish news has been over played,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. “Despite a recent uptick in [drilling] rigs, it looks like production still may be peaking.” Oil production in the lower 48 states also fell by 151,000 barrels in the latest week to total 8.95 million barrels a day, EIA data showed. “U.S. demand is very strong and that should give us a bump up” in prices, said Flynn.

Meanwhile, gasoline supplies fell 400,000 barrels while distillate stockpiles climbed 2.6 million barrels last week, according to the EIA.