Oil hovered above $79 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed a surprise increase in U.S. crude supplies, suggesting demand remains weak.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was down 12 cents at $79.24 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 15 cents to settle at $79.36 in New York on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude for August delivery was down 53 cents at $92.49 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories rose 500,000 barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted a drop of 1 million barrels.

Inventories of gasoline increased 400,000 barrels last week while distillates fell 1 million barrels, the API said.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday.