U.S. crude oil inventories up: API

HOUSTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 1.155 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending March 10.

Analysts had expected a hike of 0.555 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a drop of 3.835 million barrels in the previous week.

U.S. oil tumbled on Tuesday. The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery dropped 3.47 U.S. dollars to settle at 71.33 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.