HOUSTON, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 4.785 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Dec. 25.
API reported an increase of 2.700 million barrels of crude oil inventories for the previous week ending Dec. 18 while the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a fall of 0.6 million barrels.
Oil prices moved higher on Tuesday, buoyed by optimism on U.S. fiscal stimulus.
The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery added 38 cents to settle at 48 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for February delivery increased 23 cents to close at 51.09 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem
