HOUSTON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 2.445 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending May 13.

       Analysts had expected an increase of about 1.533 million barrels for this week.

       The API reported a surge of 1.618 million barrels in the previous week.

       U.S. oil prices fell on Tuesday. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June delivery lost 1.8 U.S. dollars to settle at 112.40 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.