Oil rose more than 3 percent on Wednesday in thin, pre-holiday trading, buoyed by a surprise drop in U.S. crude inventories, but prices stayed near multi-year lows as global supplies remained abundant and OPEC lowered the demand outlook for its exports. Ahead of the Christmas holiday on Friday, volume in the front-month U.S. crude contract was around 265,000 lots by midday, slightly less than the 294,000 lots on Tuesday, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data. At 12:40 p.m.