Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil futures rose slightly from post-settlement levels Wednesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported an unexpected decline in weekly domestic crude stockpiles as the start of U.S. summer driving season is expected to provide a much needed boost to fuel demand.

Crude Oil WTI Futures , the U.S. benchmark, recently traded at $61.88 a barrel following the report after settling down $0.95, or 1.6%, at $61.84 a barrel.

U.S. crude inventories fell by about 4.2M barrels for the week ended May. 23, compared with a build of 2.5M barrels reported by the API for the previous week and expectations for an increase of about 1M barrels.

Gasoline stockpiles decreased by about 528,000 barrels, while distillate inventories -- the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil -- rose by 1.3M barrels.

The official government inventory report is due Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT).