US crude rose 44 cents to $62.90 a barrel at 1423 GMT. It earlier hit $63.07, its highest since October 2.

Brent crude rose 76 cents at $63.83.

US inventories of crude oil and refined products fell last week as imports eased and demand was robust, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday .

Distillate stocks, including home heating oil, fell by one million barrels. Analysts had expected a stock build.

"The unexpected pull on US stock levels was an immediate catalyst for the market to trade up," said Andrew Harrington, a natural resource analyst at ANZ Bank in Sydney.

The news pushed oil prices above $62 on Wednesday, helping the market finally break through a two-month-long trading rut.

But some traders were skeptical that this was the beginning of a longer term rally as global fuel stocks remained healthy.

"I'm not convinced it will continue trading up. Signs are that this was probably a false break," said Christopher Bellew, an oil futures broker at Bache Financial in London.

Prices also rallied on stronger readings of the US economy, which expanded at a faster-than-expected 2.2 percent clip in the third quarter, according to revised figures.

The market's rally appeared likely to calm some anxieties within Opec, which meets in two weeks to decide whether or not to deepen the 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) production cut it imposed from the start of November to halt a price slide.

Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah told Reuters on Wednesday that prices were "very comfortable" and that he saw no need to cut output further.