HOUSTON - The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a build of 5.954 million barrels of crude oil in the US crude oil inventories for the week ending Nov 15.

API reported a drop of 500,000 barrels of crude oil inventories for the previous week ending Nov 8, and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported an increase of 2.2 million barrels.

Oil prices continued to pull back on Tuesday, as US dollar rose against other major currencies.

The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery slumped $1.84 to settle at $55.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January delivery erased $1.53 to close at $60.91 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.