By Kim Khan
U.S. crude oil inventories rose sharply last week, according to the latest estimate by the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday.
Crude stockpiles rose by 6 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 7, the API said. Last week it reported a gain of 4.2 million barrels.
The API snapshot serves as guide ahead of the official government inventories numbers, which come out tomorrow morning.
Analysts, on average, are expecting the Energy Information Administration to report a rise in inventories of about 3 million barrels, according to forecasts compiled by .
WTI futures were down 0.7% in late trading.
