HOUSTON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 1.335 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Nov. 10.

Analysts were expecting a surge of 1.400 million barrels for the week.

The API reported a hike of 11.900 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices settled flat on Tuesday. The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery closed flat and settled at 78.26 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.