HOUSTON, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of about 3.16 million barrels in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending July 21.

In the previous week, API reported an increase of nearly 0.63 million barrels in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending July 13.

Oil prices settled higher on Tuesday after going up slightly in the previous session.

The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery rose 0.63 U.S. dollar to settle at 68.52 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery added 0.38 dollar to 73.44 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.