NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices rose Wednesday after an industry group report showed crude inventories fell more than expected last week.
What prices are doing: Crude oil for July delivery gained $1.97, or nearly 3%, to $73.96 a barrel on Wednesday.
The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline fell to $2.713 from the previous day's price of $2.718, according to motorist group AAA.
What's moving the market: Prices rose after the American Petroleum Institute reported a larger than expected decrease in oil stocks, said Chris Lafakis, an associate economist at Moody's Economy.com.
The more closely-watched inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is scheduled to be released at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.
"Investors seem to be pricing in a stronger API report ahead of the data from the Energy Department," said Lafakis. "It wouldn't surprise me if crude supplies remained restrained, given the API report."
Analysts are looking for a 1.3 million barrel drop in crude supplies, a 430,000 barrel increase in gasoline stocks and a rise of 550,000 barrels in distillate inventories, according to a survey conducted by research firm Platts.
Reports early Wednesday that China will announce that the country's exports climbed last month also boosted oil prices, said Lafakis.
What analysts are saying: Lafakis said he expects prices to rise to an average of $81.83 in the last quarter of the year.
"I'm optimistic about prices because I'm more optimistic about the U.S. and the global economy's prospects for growth," he said. "Job growth is going to strengthen throughout the year and manufacturing growth has already been stronger than expected, and this all bodes well for the economy."
But, the rosy forecast for oil prices near $82 by the fourth quarter assumes that the euro zone's debt crisis doesn't worsen, Lafakis said.
"The key assumption is that the European debt crisis is over and that we're not going to get any more financial disruptions as a result of debt problems in European member countries," he said. "If we do get any more disruptions out of Europe, that forecast will probably be too optimistic."
