NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices climbed on Thursday, bolstered by a noticeable drop in U.S. crude stockpiles.

The West Texas Intermediate for October delivery added 1.40 U.S. dollars to settle at 69.99 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for November delivery increased 1.44 dollars to close at 73.03 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

A pronounced decline in U.S. crude oil stocks contributed to the advance.

U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 7.2 million barrels during the week ending Aug. 27, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Wednesday.

According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.7 million barrels.

Meanwhile, traders continued to digest major oil producers' decision on output policy.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group widely known as OPEC+, on Wednesday agreed to continue the monthly production hikes by 400,000 barrels per day.

"OPEC+ is still confident that the oil market will remain undersupplied until year's end due to the growing demand, and that it will therefore need the additional supply. Everything is still going to plan as far as the coming months are concerned, in other words," Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said Thursday in a note. Enditem

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