The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 4.127 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Sept. 24.
API reported a draw of 6.108 million barrels for the previous week.
Economists were expecting a draw of about 2.333 million barrels.
Oil prices slipped on Tuesday, taking a breather after rising for five consecutive sessions.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for November delivery lost 16 cents to settle at 75.29 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for November delivery decreased 44 cents to close at 79.09 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The slide came amid a stronger U.S. dollar. Historically, the price of oil is inversely related to the price of the U.S. dollar.
Traders await data on U.S. crude stockpiles as the U.S. Energy Information Administration is set to release its weekly petroleum status report on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast the U.S. crude inventories to show a fall of 4.5 million barrels for the week ending Sept. 24.
The API reports inventory levels of U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillates stocks. The figure shows how much oil and product is available in storage and thus gives an overview of U.S. petroleum demand.
Source: Xinhua