The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 0.594 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Dec. 1.

Analysts expect a drop of 2.267 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a decline of 0.817 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery lost 72 cents, or 0.99 percent, to settle at 72.32 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for February delivery dropped 83 cents, or 1.06 percent, to settle at 77.2 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Source: Xinhua