U. S. crude oil futures moved slightly lower in post-settlement trading on Tuesday after industry data showed that crude oil inventories rose more than expected last week.

The API said domestic crude stocks shot up 2.8 million barrels in the week to Sept. 25, to 340 million barrels. Distillate supplies, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, jumped 2.3 million barrels to 170.7 million barrels. Gasoline stocks fell
1.7 million barrels to 212.5 million barrels, the API said.

U. S. crude runs were off by 47,000 barrels a day, with refinery utilization slipping 0.1 percentage point to 83.6 percent of capacity, API said. Analysts had expected a utilization rate drop of 0.5 percentage points on average.

U. S. retail gasoline demand rose 0.9 percent to average 9.17 million barrels per day for the week ended Sept. 25, according to the weekly MasterCard SpendingPulse report released on Tuesday.

Crude oil freight rates on major routes were mostly firmer on Tuesday, extending gains made in recent days due to cargo interest and tighter ship supply. The world's benchmark Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) export route from the Middle East Gulf (MEG) to Japan inched higher to W39.44 from W38.63 last week.

Crude oil price is seen to be under pressure after consecutive built in inventory reported by API. Today we have inventory reports from EIA. Another build in inventory reported is likely to pressurize crude oil prices further. Risk aversion and stronger dollar may add pressure on crude. We recommend selling crude oil on every rise.