By Margot Habiby March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell for the first time in three days as a stronger dollar trimmed demand for most commodities and a report showed U.S. crude stockpiles increased last week. Oil fell as much as 1.3 percent as the dollar strengthened against the euro amid concern Greece will fail to secure financial assistance from the European Union. Crude oil inventories grew last week to the highest level since August, according to a U.S. government report yesterday. “The dollar’s up, and we’re reverting back to the standby correlation,” said Brad Samples, a commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. Oil reached a 10-week high near $83 a barrel yesterday and “will probably stagnate” if it doesn’t break $84 to $85 in the next week or so, he said. Crude oil for April delivery fell 63 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $82.30 a barrel at 9:15 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It settled at $82.93 yesterday, the highest close since Jan. 6. Oil has risen 71 percent in the past year. The dollar gained 0.5 percent against the euro to $1.3644 at 9:16 a.m. in New York from $1.3738 yesterday. U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week for a seventh week to 344 million barrels, according to the U.S. &cls;Energy Department. To contact the reporter on this story: Margot Habiby in Dallas at mhabiby@bloomberg.net.

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