The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a small draw of 907,000 barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending February 16, according to the API data. Analysts had expected a small build of 1.333 million barrels in crude oil inventories, instead. Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build of 3.947 million barrels of crude oil, along with a build in gasoline inventories of 4.634 million barrels. This week’s data is more optimistic, with the API reporting not only a surprise draw for crude oil, but a modest gasoline build of 1.468 million barrels, which was largely in line with analyst forecasts that had the build pegged at a 1.229-million-barrel build. The WTI and Brent benchmarks both down on Wednesday with WTI trading down $0.32 (-0.52 percent) at $61.47, while Brent trading down $0.24 (-0.37 percent) at $64.81 at 12:07pm EST. Both benchmarks are […]