Crude futures jumped Wednesday after the government reported unexpected declines in U.S. refinery activity and inventories of gasoline and oil.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported that gasoline inventories fell 3.6 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 24.

Refinery utilization fell by 1.3 percentage points to 90.3 percent of capacity, while crude oil inventories fell 3.5 million barrels, much more than the 800,000 barrel decrease analysts had expected.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 1.78 dollars to settle at 73.51 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while September gasoline rose 8.54 cents to settle at 2. 1008 dollars a gallon.