Crude oil price rallied further today after the Energy Information Administration reported a crude oil inventory draw of 4.7 million barrels for the week to August 21. At 507.8 million barrels, oil inventories are 15 percent above the five-year average for this time of the year. Last week’s draw compares with a 1.6-million-barrel decline in inventories for the previous week. Analysts had expected an inventory draw of 3.833 million barrels for the week to August 21. The American Petroleum Institute yesterday estimated crude oil inventories had shed 4.524 million barrels in the reported period. In gasoline, the EIA estimated an inventory draw of 4.6 million barrels, compared with a decline of 3.3 million barrels a week earlier that sparked hopes the excessive supply of gasoline was being drained by recovering demand for fuels. Gasoline production last week averaged 9.5 million bpd, up from 9.4 million bpd in the previous […]