The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise oil inventory build of 38,000 barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending August 25, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a draw in crude oil inventories of 522,000 barrels . Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise draw of 5.17 million barrels of crude oil. The API also reported a build in gasoline inventories for week ending August 25 in the amount of 21,000 barrels. Analysts predicted a much larger build of 370,000 barrels . Oil prices were trading down in mid-afternoon trading prior to the release of the API data on inventories. At 2:07pm EDT, WTI was trading down 0.62% ( -$0.43 ) at $68.44 per barrel, with Brent crude trading down 0.31% ( -$0.24 ) at $76.26 per barrel, on news late yesterday from OPEC that it had eased […]