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Crude futures rose on Wednesday for the first time in eight days, with US oil pulling further away from the widely watched USD 30-per-barrel level breached the previous session, after US crude stocks unexpectedly fell last week.

US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 44 cents at USD 30.88 a barrel at 0144 GMT. On Tuesday, it fell 97 cents to close at USD 30.44 a barrel, after touching a low of USD 29.93, which was last seen in December 2003.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 34 cents at USD 31.20 a barrel.

The contract fell 69 cents to settle at USD 30.86, after bottoming at USD 30.34, on Tuesday.

The USD 30 mark is both a psychological and financial threshold and, in recent days, traders have poured money into USD 30 put options for expiration in February and March.

"USD 30 may be intermediate support but I really honestly can't say whether this is the bottom," said Avtar Sandu, senior commodities manager at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"We see a bounce off here ... but a change in trend is not visible yet," he said.

US crude stocks fell by 3.9 million barrels in the week to 480.071 million, compared with analysts' expectations for a increase of 2.5 million barrels, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for WTI fell by 302,000 barrels, API said.

But the bearish outlook for oil remains after the US government forecast on Tuesday that the global glut will swell until late 2017.

Increased Iranian oil output should feed into oversupply this year with the expected lifting of Western sanctions on that country's exports, the US Energy Information Administration said.

The agency forecast that a limited decline in US supplies next year and steady growth in global demand will help ease the glut only in the third quarter of 2017, the first decline after nearly four straight years of gains.

Still, in a reminder that geopolitical tensions could intervene to support prices, Iran is holding 10 US sailors after seizing two Navy boats that allegedly entered Iranian waters in the Gulf on Tuesday.

First Published:Jan 13, 2016 8:54 AM IST