New York's main contract, light sweet crude for May delivery gained 1.48 dollars to 50.86 dollars.
Brent North Sea crude for May delivery advanced 1.50 dollars to 53.09 dollars.
Prices received a mild boost from the latest US energy report released Wednesday, which showed the country's crude stocks increased by a smaller margin than the industry had forecast.
The weekly Department of Energy report showed crude reserves rose by 1.6 million barrels in the week ending April 3, lower than the gain of 1.9 million barrels that analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted.
Author: Ksenia Kochneva
