The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday reported an increase of 1 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Jan. 17.

The API reported a decline of 2.6 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices fell on Wednesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery dropped 39 cents, or 0.51 percent, to settle at 75.44 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude for March delivery lost 28 cents, or 0.37 percent, to settle at 79.0 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Source: Xinhua