The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported an extra-large oil inventory draw of 5.17 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending August 18, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a smaller draw in crude oil inventories of 1.497 million barrels. Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise build of 3.66 million barrels of crude oil. The API also reported a draw in gasoline inventories for week ending August 18 in the amount of 930,000 barrels. Analysts predicted a smaller draw of 488,000 barrels . Oil prices were trading up earlier on Tuesday afternoon prior to the release of the API data on inventories. At 4:01pm EDT, WTI was trading up 0.55% ( +$0.36 ) at $65.78 per barrel, with Brent crude trading up 0.37% (+$0.27 ) at $72.48 per barrel. The higher prices were thought to be attributed to […]