On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $113.25 a barrel at 0651 GMT, up $0.49 in the Globex electronic session, after having touched $113.70 a barrel, a level last reached Sept. 22, 2008.
June Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.43 to $125.56 a barrel.
The Fed, which left interest rates unchanged Wednesday, said it "will complete" its $600-billion bond-buying program by the end of June and hold short-term rates at a record low for an "extended period."
Chairman Ben Bernanke also said there was no timetable for tightening.
"The comments from Bernanke are very bullish for equity markets, via a weak dollar, U.S. earnings and commodity prices," said RBS Morgans investment adviser Chris MacDonald in Sydney.
Market participants said traders were quick to place bets on higher oil prices as the selloff in the dollar accelerated on the Fed's comments.
At 0601 GMT, the euro traded at $1.4851 against the dollar, its highest level since December 2009, compared with $1.4788 late in New York on Wednesday. A weak greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities more affordable for buyers using other currencies, boosting prices.
"The Fed announcement and question/answer session suggested a continued loose monetary policy for an extended period that is apt to maintain pressure on the dollar in the process of boosting equities and assets such as oil," said Ritterbusch and Associates in a note to its clients.
"After a couple of days of pause, the dollar is resuming its downtrend and we all know what that means, right? More upside for oil prices," said a trader at GS Caltex.
"I expect crude's upward momentum to continue at least until the end of the year. Even if the Fed signals a rate hike in the second half, they would still have a lot of catching up to do."
Meanwhile, U.S. Department of Energy data Wednesday showed U.S. crude inventories soared well above analysts' expectations last week, but Ritterbusch said in a note the stockpile report was "decidedly bullish" as it reinforced its perception of a tight East Coast gasoline market.
Crude stockpiles rose 6.2 million barrels to 363.1 million barrels, compared with an average survey estimate of a 900,000-barrel increase.
However, gasoline stockpiles declined by 2.5 million barrels to 205.6 million barrels, the department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report, compared with a 1.1-million-barrel drop forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts.
"East Coast gasoline supplies are now almost 11.5% below the average of the past 3 years per date....the gasoline market still appears capable of leading the complex higher for another few weeks," Ritterbusch said.
Oil product futures were higher.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for May--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 263 points to $3.4457 a gallon, while May heating oil traded at $3.2481, 147 points higher.
ICE gasoil for May changed hands at $1,032.00 a metric ton, up $7.75 from Wednesday's settlement. Source online.wsj.com...
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