The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a decrease of 3.069 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Dec. 16.

Analysts expected a drop of 0.167 million barrels for this week.

The institute reported a surge of 7.819 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices climbed on Tuesday, finding support from a weaker U.S. dollar.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery added 90 cents, or 1.2 percent, to settle at 76.09 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for February delivery gained 19 cents, or 0.2 percent, to settle at 79.99 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, dipped 0.69 percent to 104.0110 in late trading on Tuesday. Historically, the price of oil is inversely related to the price of the U.S. currency.
Source: Xinhua