Oil jumped 40% at the high on Wednesday, recovering from early losses in a volatile overnight trading session that saw international benchmark Brent crude fall to its lowest level in more than 20 years.

West Texas Intermediate for June delivery rose $2.21, or 19.1%, to settle at $13.78 per barrel. Earlier in the session WTI, the U.S. benchmark, had traded as low as $10.26, before jumping more than 40% to hit a session high of $16.20. Brent crude settled $1.04, or 5.38%, higher at $20.37, after previously breaking below $16.

Given oil's more than 70% decline this year a smaller gain, of course, now accounts for a much larger percentage move. At the beginning of the year WTI fetched more than $60 per barrel, but the fall-off in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic has sent prices tumbling.

On Wednesday President Donald Trump said in a tweet that he had "instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea." CNBC's Jim Cramer said this could have contributed to oil's surge higher as short sellers covered their positions.

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Some of the gains were lost, however, after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that for the week ending April 17 inventory rose by 15 million barrels. While less than last week's build of more than 19 million barrels, it is very large when compared with historical averages.

Wednesday's move higher stood in sharp contrast to the wild downward price action in oil so far this week. On Monday, the WTI contract for May delivery plunged below zero to trade in negative territory for the first time in history. Trading volume was thin since it was the day before the contract's expiration date, but the move was nonetheless historic. On Tuesday the contract rallied ahead of the settle, to finish trading at $10.01 per barrel.

Meantime the more actively traded June contract fell 43.37% on Tuesday to settle at $11.57 as energy market participants continue to fear that growing oversupply will soon exhaust all the available storage worldwide. Brent dropped 24.4% on Tuesday in its worst daily performance in nearly three decades.