Oil prices ended at a two-month high Wednesday, finding support in a smaller-than-expected build in US crude inventories and an upward revision of global oil demand forecast by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Light, sweet crude oil for delivery in April settled $0.60 higher at $82.09 per barrel in the New York Mercantile Exchange. The prices had touched a high of $83.03, a level not seen since early January.

US crude stockpiles rose 1.4 million barrels in the week ended March 5, according to the report from Energy Information Administration. Analysts had been expecting an increase by 2.1 million barrels. Gasoline stocks fell by 2.9 million barrels in the week, steeper than the expected decline by 0.33 million barrels.

Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute had reported an increase of 6.5 million barrels in US crude inventories in the latest week.

OPEC in its monthly oil report, Wednesday, raised its expectation for oil demand growth in 2010 to 880,000 barrels per day from the previous estimate of 810,000 barrels per day.