Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 61 cents to $79.75 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract rose 24 cents to settle at $79.14 on Tuesday.

U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly fell last week, the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday. Crude stocks fell 4.4 million barrels while analysts had expected a rise of 1.2 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

The Energy Information Administration plans to announce its inventory report later Wednesday.Crude prices have zigzagged around $79 a barrel for more than a month as investors mull mixed economic data from the U.S. Prices are up from $32 in December but still below the record high of $147 in July, 2008.

Some analysts expect weak global economic growth to keep commodities such as oil from surging much higher.