HOUSTON, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 5.272 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Jan. 22.

API reported an increase of 2.562 million barrels of crude oil inventories for the previous week ending Jan. 15 while the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a rise of 4.4 million barrels.

Oil prices ended mixed on Tuesday as soaring COVID-19 infections continued to spark fears over fuel demand.

The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery lost 16 cents to settle at 52.61 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery increased 3 cents to close at 55.91 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem