Oil Above $102 As US Dollar Weakens

"Even though crude is gaining strength right now, the technical trend is still weak," he said. "In the near term, pricing is likely to trade around the $100 level. The last few days have showed there's strong support around this level."

Investors were also eyeing the release of a weekly report on U.S. fuel inventories later Wednesday. The report by the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration was expected to show crude stockpiles rose for the third straight week.

Crude oil inventories were predicted to rise 1.7 million barrels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts' forecasts.

Gasoline stockpiles were expected to fall 800,000 barrels, and stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, were seen falling 1.6 million barrels. Refinery use was expected to grow by 0.5 percentage point to 84.3 percent of capacity.

Ahead of the report, The Schork Report, edited by Stephen Schork, noted increased U.S. appetite for gasoline, even though the start of the high-demand summer driving season is months away.

"Per MasterCard's Gasoline Report, U.S. demand rose for the first time in nine weeks compared with year earlier figures," it said, adding purchases at the pump were up 1.2 percent last week compared to the previous week and up 5.3 percent from a year ago.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil and gasoline futures added nearly 2 cents to sell for $2.9435 and $2.6993 a gallon (3.8 liters.) Natural gas futures gained 7.7 cents to $9.496 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude futures rose 92 cents to $101.52 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

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Associated Press writer Gillian Wong contributed to this report from Singapore.