The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday reported an increase of 0.483 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Jan. 12.

Analysts were expecting a drop of 2.4 million barrels for the week.

The API reported a decline of 5.215 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices settled mixed on Wednesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery went up 16 cents, or 0.22 percent, to settle at 72.56 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery dropped 41 cents, or 0.52 percent, to settle at 77.88 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Source: Xinhua