By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Thursday, with U.S. crude advancing firmly above the $40 a barrel mark on short-covering and after a modest stockpile drop at the delivery hub for U.S. crude futures.
It was a second straight day of gains for crude futures from April lows below $40 after Wednesday's 3 percent run-up powered by data showing a hefty U.S. gasoline inventory drawdown.
Brent crude was up 85 cents, or 2 percent, at $43.95 a barrel by 12:19 p.m. EDT (1619 GMT).
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 95 cents, or 2.4 percent, to 41.78 per barrel, gaining more than $1 at the session peak. On Wednesday, WTI settled up more than $1.30, or 3 percent.
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Market intelligence firm Genscape reported on Thursday that stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for U.S. crude futures fell 89,071 barrels during the week to Aug. 2, traders who saw the data said. The Genscape report came after U.S. government data on Wednesday showed a 1.1 million-barrel decline at the Cushing hub during the week to July 29.
The Cushing draw aside, short-covering by those buying oil contracts to close out profitable bearish bets helped prices rebound, traders said.
(Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in; LONDON and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by David Evans and Marguerita Choy)
