By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles rose last week, but that did little to take the shine off a good day for oil prices after major producers decided to stick with plans to gradually lift output.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude prices, was up $1.18 a barrel on the news, after settling up $1.03 at $62.44 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 4.3 million barrels for the week ended April 22, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute. That compared with a rise of 0.43 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories fell by about 1.29 million last week, compared with a 1.62 million fall in the prior week, and distillate stocks slipped by about 2.42 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies increased by about 0.66 million barrels last week.