HOUSTON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 2.262 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending March 17.
Analysts expected a drop of 1.448 million barrels for this week.
The API reported a surge of 1.155 million barrels in the previous week.
U.S. oil prices rose on Tuesday.
The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery gained 1.69 U.S. dollars to settle at 69.33 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. ■
