The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a draw of 6.0 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending December 22, marking four large draws in as many weeks. Analysts had expected a smaller drawdown of 3.97 million barrels of the fuel. Supply risk has increased in 2017 as a side-effect of the OPEC output cut deal, and disruptions now have a much stronger effect on oil prices in a quickly tightening market . Outages in Libya and the North Sea have pushed prices upward in recent days, with WTI briefly surpassing the $60 milestone. On the flipside, the Permian Basin, U.S.’ most prolific shale patch, has beaten its own production record, pumping an estimated 815 million barrels of crude this year. U.S. shale producers expect to further boost output in 2018, soaring above 10.5 million bpd. In the short term, however, increased production hasn’t led […]