HOUSTON, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a large draw of over 9.2 million barrels in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending June 22.

The institute reported a large draw of over 3.0 million barrels in the oil inventories for the week ending June 15.

API forecast a draw of 2.5 million barrels for the week ending June 22. The decline in inventories was more than expected for the week, which implies greater demand and is bullish for crude prices.

On Tuesday, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery jumped 2.45 U.S. dollars to settle at 70.53 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for August delivery added 1.58 dollars to 76.31 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Oil prices rebounded strongly amid reports that the U.S. State Department said it will require companies to cut oil imports from Iran to zero by November.

Meanwhile, oil prices got support from an outage at Canada's largest oil sands facility and concerns about Libya's crude exports due to developments in the country's ongoing conflict.