Crude oil prices rose higher after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 5.5 million barrels for the week to December 20 in its last weekly petroleum status report for 2019. At 441.4 million barrels, inventories were some 2 percent above the seasonal average, the EIA said. The authority also reported average refining rates of 17 million bpd for last week, which compared with 16.6 million bpd a week earlier. Gasoline production averaged 10.3 million bpd and distillate fuels production stood at 5.4 million bpd. These compared with 9.8 million bpd of gasoline and 5.1 million bpd of distillate fuels a week earlier. Gasoline inventories, the EIA said, added 2 million barrels in the week to December 20. This compared with a build of 2.5 million barrels for the previous week. Distillate fuel inventories declined by 200,000 barrels. This compared with an increase of 1.5 million barrels […]