The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 5.025 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Jan. 31.

Analysts expect a hike of 3.170 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a surge of 2.860 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices settled mixed on Tuesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery dropped 46 cents, or 0.63 percent, to settle at 72.7 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery went up 24 cents, or 0.32 percent, to settle at 76.2 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Source: Xinhua