Oil Price Forecast: WTI extends Wednesday's double digit rally, trades above $16

• WTI's price rally continues on optimism generated by the weekly US inventory report. 
• The OPEC+ output cut deal is set to take effect from May 1. 
• Texas may enact output cuts in response to oversupply conditions. 

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, North America's oil benchmark, is trading near $16.30 at press time, representing an 8% gain on the day. 

The black gold rose more than 10% to $15 on Wednesday after the US reported a lower-than-expected crude stockpile and a surprise drop in gasoline inventories. 

The US crude oil inventories rose by 9 million barrels last week to 527.6 million barrels, the 10.6 million-barrel rise analysts had expected in a Reuters poll, the Energy Information Administration data showed. Meanwhile, gasoline stockpiles fell by 3.7 million barrels from record highs.

These numbers boosted hopes that the oversupply conditions could ease at a faster rate once the European countries and the US ease coronavirus-related lockdown. 

Oil's ascent may continue, as the OPEC+, a group of major producers led by Russia and Saudi Arabia will reduce their daily output by nearly 10 million barrels from May 1. Additionally, reports are doing the rounds that regulators in Texas, the biggest U.S. oil-producing state, are scheduled to vote on May 5 whether to enact output cuts. Officials in North Dakota and Oklahoma are also considering reducing output. 

Crude price crashed earlier this month with the now-expired May contract falling as low as $38 below zero, as sellers paid buyers to take oil off their hands. The slide was fueled by reports stating that the coronavirus-led demand destruction is filling up storage facilities in the US and across the globe.