West Texas Intermediate crude advanced on Tuesday before an industry report showed that inventories in the world's largest consumer of the oil, U.S., dropped for the second straight week. WTI for delivery in January increased 36 cents to $97.70 a barrel on the NYMEX and traded at $97.66 as of 1:13 p.m. in Singapore, while it dropped 31 cents on yesterday's session to $97.34, the least since December 4.