Benchmark crude rose $1.07 to $83.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained $1.35 to settle at $82.82 on Tuesday.
Gasoline pump prices climbed as well, to a national average of $2.751 for a gallon of regular, according to AAA, Wright Express and oil Price Information Service.
That's up almost two cents from Tuesday and 29 cents higher than a year ago.
Gas has been following oil higher over the past week as stock markets rallied and the dollar fell. Crude traders often look to stock markets as a measure of overall investor sentiment, while oil, priced in dollars, gets cheaper for investors with foreign currencies when the dollar drops. The dollar continued its decline against the euro on Wednesday. The connection between the two currencies has been one of the closest indicators of the direction of oil prices recently.
Stock markets tried to hold on to Tuesday's sizable gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 20 points.
The NASDAQ and the S and amp;P 500 were little changed.
The Energy Information Administration said that crude inventories increased last week by 3.1 million barrels, or 0.9 percent, to 360.9 million barrels. That is 7 percent above year-ago levels.
Natural gas rose 10.8 cents to $3.851 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In other Nymex trading in November contracts, heating oil gained 2.59 cents at $2.3285 a gallon and gasoline added 3.39 cents at $2.1594 a gallon.
In London, Brent crude rose 85 cents to $85.69 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
