Oil climbed above $74 per barrel on Thursday after Chinese data showed a surge in exports in May and as the IEA revised up its estimate of global oil demand growth for this year.
China's exports rose 48.5 percent in May from a year earlier, beating forecasts of a 32 percent gain and confirming a Reuters report on Wednesday, which helped send oil up more than 3 percent.
U.S. crude for July rose 47 cents to $74.85 a barrel by 1213 GMT. ICE Brent gained 22 cents to $74.49.
Asian and European stock markets rose and the dollar fell after the strong Chinese data, which eased some worries over a slowdown in Europe.
"Risk appetite is creeping back into the markets," said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Support for oil prices came from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which on Thursday revised up its estimate of global oil demand growth this year due to increased fuel use in the United States and on robust Chinese oil consumption.
The Paris-based agency raised its global oil demand growth forecast for 2010 by 70,000 barrels per day to 1.68 million bpd, saying oil demand this year would hit 86.44 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 84.76 million bpd in 2009.
U.S. DEMAND
David Fyfe, head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets Division, said the upward revision was a response to further signs of a recovery in economic activity.
"The demand revision was quite a minor one, but it was based on stronger demand for middle distillates in the United States," Fyfe said.
Much of the global growth this year has been coming from China but some economists question whether the momentum there can be sustained given debt problems in Europe, the country's biggest overseas market.
Leaked numbers cited by four separate market sources on Thursday pointed to an increase in Chinese industrial output of 16.5 percent in May from a year earlier, lower than expected.
China's May crude oil imports rose 4.3 percent from a year ago, but were off a record high hit in April.
U.S. crude has recovered almost $10 from below $65 on May 20, but is still down 15 percent from a 19-month peak on May 3.
U.S. crude stocks last week dropped a larger-than-expected 1.8 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
That was the same amount by which stockpiles of distillates including heating oil and diesel increased as distillate demand slowed, showing a gain of 9.3 percent in the four weeks ended June 4, compared with 17 percent in the four weeks to May 28.
U.S. gasoline supplies were little changed last week, the EIA said.
