HOUSTON, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 0.377 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending April 7.

Analysts expected a drop of 1.3 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a decline of 4.346 million barrels in the previous week.

U.S. oil prices saw material growth on Tuesday, due to the softening of the U.S. dollar and a benign expectation on weekly U.S. oil inventory data.

The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery gained 1.79 U.S. dollars, or 2.24 percent, to settle at 81.53 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery picked up 1.43 dollars, or 1.70 percent, to settle at 85.61 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, lost about 0.4 percent on Tuesday, lending support to U.S. dollar-denominated asset prices.