Oil prices rise on US crude stock drawdown; Brent crude hits $104.73/bbl

Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Wednesday as industry data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in US crude stockpiles.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose 67 cents, or 0.7%, to $95.65 a barrel by 0009 GMT.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose 33 cents, or 0.3%, to $104.73 a barrel.

After settlement on Tuesday, industry group the American Petroleum Institute said crude stocks in the United States fell by 4 million barrels last week. Read full story

That is four times the 1 million barrel decline expected by analysts in a Reuters poll. 

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.1 million barrels compared with expectations of a build of 3.5 million barrels, the API data showed.

The US government's Energy Information Administration releases its weekly oil report later on Wednesday.

Prices were also lifted by expectations of a tighter gas squeeze in Europe from Wednesday after Russia's Gazprom said it would cut flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to a fifth of capacity.

European Union countries on Tuesday approved a weakened emergency plan to curb demand, after striking compromise deals to limit reductions for some countries.