NEW YORK, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices extended gains on Thursday as optimism regained the upper hand.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for April delivery added 1.58 U.S. dollars to settle at 66.02 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May delivery increased 1.73 dollars to close at 69.63 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The upswing came despite data showing a significant build in U.S. crude supplies.
U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 13.8 million barrels during the week ending March 5, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Wednesday, easily topping analysts' estimates.
According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 11.9 million barrels last week and distillate fuel inventories decreased by 5.5 million barrels.
Oil garnered some support from a weaker U.S. dollar. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.41 percent to 91.4316 in late trading on Thursday. Historically, the price of oil is inversely related to the price of the U.S. dollar. Enditem
