CORRECTED - CORRECTED-UPDATE 4-Oil leaps to $96 high on U.S. inventory drop

(Corrects paragraph 4 to show oil prices rose $4.15 instead of $4.77 a barrel on Wednesday, and that the gain is nearly 5 percent) (Recasts lead, updates prices para 3)

By Fayen Wong

SYDNEY, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Oil leaped nearly 2 percent to top $96 for the first time on Thursday, extending the previous day's 5 percent surge after an unexpected sharp fall in U.S. crude stocks and data showing strong economic growth.

The rise toward oil's inflation-adjusted peak of $101.70 from April 1980 was also supported by a drop in the U.S. dollar, which fell to record lows against the euro after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut rates by a quarter percentage point.

U.S. oil for December delivery CLc1 rose as high as $96.24 a barrel in electronic trade. By 0302 GMT it was up $1.57 at $96.13. December Brent crude LCOc1 also hit its record high of $91.63, up $1 on the day.

Oil soared $4.15 or nearly 5 percent on Wednesday, its biggest one-day gain in 10 months, after U.S. data showed an unexpected 3.9 million-barrel drop in crude stocks last week, most of it at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point. [EIA/S].

"The U.S. inventory report has reaffirmed the belief that market conditions are tightening and oil prices are ratcheting up higher on that basis," said David Moore, a resource analyst at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

Two rate cuts by the Fed to stave off fears of recession also have added liquidity to financial markets by making it cheaper to borrow, and some analysts say the extra cash has been drawn to energy markets. [ID:nN31287326]

Oil prices have surged more than 50 percent since the start of the year, and have risen about 18 percent in the past month alone on winter supply worries, speculative buying and a succession of record lows in the U.S. dollar.