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Not only did official numbers agree with expectations set by Wednesday's American Petroleum Institute (API) weekly report which suggested record drawdowns in American crude stockpiles, but they surpassed them. After sending the price of crude oil surging, investor hopes for an over ten million barrel drawdown solidified into fact on Thursday with the release of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) official report data, revealing that despite the unbelievable 12.1 million barrel decline in stockpiles suggested by the API, the truth was much better still. In fact, American crude oil inventories dropped by a whopping 14.5 million barrels over the week ending September 2nd.

Analysts point to disruptions caused by Hurricane Hermine and a number of tropical storms affecting the East and Gulf Coasts as main causes for the inventory drop and caution that as weather subsides, inventories are likely to recover. "There's still plenty of oil out there. What we're seeing is the result of storm impacts on vessel shipping," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, "I suspect over the next few weeks we're going to see inventories recover to a certain extent as the imports catch up."

Further news supporting the price of oil came in the form of data released by the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China showing record crude oil imports by the nation for the month of August. China purchased 32.85 million metric tons of crude oil last month, an average of 7.8 million barrels a day, the highest monthly import of the year. Many analysts and investors have been wondering if and when China will be easing up on their recent crude oil buying spree so the August numbers come as some comfort as a drop in import rates by China can only add to global oversupply.

Some analysts point to the slowdown in China's own oil production as evidence that China is unlikely to drop their rate of crude oil importing any time soon. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group believes that "the death of Chinese oil demand has been greatly exaggerated. Now with Chinese oil production falling, we will see imports stay on the high side."

By the end of Thursday's session, November Brent crude futures had risen $2.01, or 4.2%, to $49.99 USD a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange, while October West Texas Intermediate gained $2.12, or 4.7%, reaching $47.62 USD a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The day's main influences, the bears and bulls:

The Bears:

- Although bears typically don't begin hibernating until at least a little later in the month, there are scant traces of them at the moment.

The Bulls:

- The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly official data outperformed earlier reports, posting a national stockpile drawdown of 14.5 million barrels.

- China's General Administration of Customs released data showing continuing high crude oil imports for the month of August, bringing in an average of 7.8 million barrels a day.