Crude oil inventories in the United States swelled by 5.7 million barrels in the week to July 3, the Energy Information Administration reported , but gasoline inventories drew down. Analysts had expected an inventory decline of 3.114 million barrels for crude oil in the period, while the American Petroleum Institute reported a crude build the day prior, to the tune of 2.048 million barrels. In the week prior, the EIA had reported a significant inventory draw of 7.2 million barrels, while analysts had only anticipated a drawdown of less than a million barrels—highlighting the low degree of accuracy in recent weeks of analyst predictions. Oil inventories remain above the five-year average for this time of the year, with refinery runs averaging 14.3 million bpd, compared with 14 million bpd a week earlier, and 13.8 million bpd two weeks earlier. Gasoline production averaged 9.0 million bpd in the week to […]