HOUSTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a sharp fall of 11.1 million barrels in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Aug. 23.
API reported a drop of 3.5 million barrels of crude oil inventories for the previous week ending Aug. 16, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a decrease of 2.7 million barrels.
Oil prices rose on Tuesday, ending a four-day losing streak as investors awaited data on U.S. crude oil inventories, scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the EIA.
Analysts said expectations for falling U.S. inventories supported oil prices on Tuesday.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October delivery increased 1.29 U.S. dollars to settle at 54.93 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for October delivery added 0.81 dollar to close at 59.51 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.