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NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices settled mildly higher Wednesday even though official data showed a big increase in U.S crude inventories last week.
U.S. crude oil inventories jumped up by 13.8 million barrels in the February 3 week to 508.6 million, posting the fifth weekly increase in a row and putting the year-on-year gain at 8.1 percent, the country's Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
The rise of the inventories was not as massive as many investors had feared, which might be the reason why prices stayed stable, analysts said.
The West Texas Intermediate for March Delivery added 0.17 dollar to settle at 52.34 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for April delivery edged up 0.07 dollar to close at 55.12 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
