By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped more than 2 percent on Wednesday after the U.S. government reported a larger-than-expected weekly drawdown in crude inventories, adding fuel to an existing rally on fading concerns over Britain's exit from the European Union.
The potential for an oil workers strike in Norway and a crisis in Venezuela's energy sector also added support to crude futures.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stockpiles fell by 4.1 million barrels for the week to June 24, the sixth consecutive week of drawdowns.
That was more than the 2.4 million barrels expected by analysts in a Reuters poll. The American Petroleum Institute trade group had published a drawdown similar to the EIA's on Tuesday, boosting crude futures in post-settlement trade.
"The report is bullish with the large crude oil inventory decrease of over 4 million barrels," said John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital. "The stepped-up demand by refiners and a plunge in imports helped create the decline."
Brent crude futures were up $1.30 cents, or 2.7 percent, at $49.88 per barrel by 11:21 a.m. EDT (1521 GMT).
U.S. crude futures rose $1.29, or 2.7 percent, to $49.14.
But the EIA also said gasoline stocks had an unseasonably large increase of 1.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for a 58,000-barrel gain. On the East Coast, gasoline stockpiles rose to record levels. That made some traders bearish on their longer-term view of oil.
"We firmly feel any rally will stall out near the $50 level, as we have seen unjustified gains in previous weeks for gasoline based on the build number we have now," said Tariq Zahir, crude spreads trader and managing partner at Tyche Capital Advisors in New York.
(Additional reporting by Julia Payne in LONDON and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
