Crude oil futures are extending their gains midweek after the US government reported the second consecutively weekly decline in domestic inventories. With output sliding and storage levels easing, investors are bullish on crude prices, which explains its 132% rally over the last month since sliding below zero. Could US oil contracts test $40 this summer?

July West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures surged $1.11, or 3.47%, to $33.07 per barrel at 16:14 GMT on Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude prices have advanced 30% over the last week and more than 130% since crashing to -$40 late last month. But US crude is still down about 50% year-to-date.

Brent, the international benchmark for oil prices, is also edging up in the middle of the trading week. July Brent crude futures tacked on $0.89, or 2.57%, to $35.52 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. Brent has rallied 21% in the five recent sessions, paring its YTD decline to 46%.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic inventories declined by five million barrels for the week ending May 15, larger than the median estimate of 2.4 million barrels. This is the second straight week that the government has reported a supply drop. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub also decreased by approximately 5.5 million barrels.

Gasoline stockpiles increased 2.8 million barrels, while distillate supplies jumped 3.8 million barrels.

Last week, the Baker Hughes total oil rig count came in at 258, down from 292 in the previous week.

Traders are bullish on the energy commodity due to major markets beginning to reopen their economies. They believe that a gradual recovery could renew demand. With major producers curtailing operations and production levels, investors are predicting a rebalance by the end of the year. But if a second wave strikes and countries resort to shutting down their economies, it could spell bad news for global crude markets.

In other energy markets, July natural gas futures tumbled $0.035, or 1.91%, to $1.795 per million British thermal units (btu). July gasoline futures dipped $0.0077, or 0.74%, to $1.0375 a gallon. July heating oil futures tacked on $0.0199, or 1.97%, to $1.0324 per gallon.