NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil jumped back above $61 a barrel Wednesday, gaining more than $2, on renewed violence in Nigeria, follow-through on OPEC's production cut and a big drop in U.S. crude supplies.

U.S. light crude for December delivery shot up $2.05 a barrel, or more than 3 percent, to settle at $61.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil had traded up slightly earlier in the morning.

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In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Information Administration said crude stocks fell by 3.3 million barrels last week. Analysts were looking for an increase of 2.6 million barrels, according to Reuters.

Distillates, used to make heating oil and diesel fuel, declined by 1.4 million barrels, while gasoline supplies fell 2.8 million barrels. Analysts were looking for a 1.1 million-barrel drop in distillates supplies and a decline of 600,000 barrels in gasoline stockpiles.

Prices also drew strength from news of fresh strife in Nigeria, where militant unrest has shut in more than a quarter of the OPEC member's production capacity.

Oil company sources said Wednesday villagers in Nigeria had invaded four pumping stations in country's southern Delta region. It was not immediately clear how much impact the invasion had had on oil supplies.

Militants from the country's poor but oil-rich south have been disrupting production in an effort to gain a greater share of the nation's oil wealth.

Earlier in the day, oil had risen after it became apparent other OPEC nations would follow Saudi Arabia's lead and cut production.

Abu Dhabi's state oil firm told major customers Tuesday it would cut crude exports by about 5 percent in November.

On Wednesday, an Iranian official said Iran had also informed customers it was cutting supplies by 176,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November.

Leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia, which is shouldering the greatest part of a 1.2 million bpd production reduction agreed last week, also informed customers earlier this week it would cut back November supplies.

Doubts OPEC would abide by its agreement helped to push U.S. crude down to $56.55 a barrel last week, the lowest level this year, and some analysts have said OPEC has yet to prove its determination.

But others noted OPEC had gained experience in checking price falls.

"They have learnt a considerable amount in the last few years about micro-managing the market," John Waterlow of Wood Mackenzie consultancy told Reuters.

Stocks of oil majors BP (Charts), ExxonMobil (Charts), ConocoPhillips (Charts), Chevron (Charts) and Royal Dutch Shell (Charts) were mostly higher in early trading.

--from staff and wire reports

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