The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 2.349 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Dec. 8.

Analysts expected a drop of 1.5 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a hike of 0.594 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery decreased 2.71 U.S. dollars, or 3.8 percent, to settle at 68.61 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude for February delivery dropped 2.79 dollars, or 3.67 percent, to settle at 73.24 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Source: Xinhua