The United States held a record-high level of commercial crude oil inventories as of the week to June 19 following the collapse in demand in the lockdown and the slow demand recovery after lockdowns were lifted, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Monday. In its latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report, the EIA reported a 1.4-million-barrel increase in crude oil inventories for the week to June 19. At 540.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are still above the five-year average for this time of the year, and demand improvement seems to be going more slowly than hoped, as suggested by the change in fuels. At nearly 541 million barrels of crude oil inventories for the week to June 19, the U.S. beat by 5 million barrels its previous record for the highest volume of commercial inventories from late March 2017, EIA data showed. As of June […]