Crude oil prices remained rangebound during midmorning trade in Asia Dec. 16 as the American Petroleum Institute’s report of a build in crude and product inventories tempered any bullishness from progress in the US stimulus negotiations. At 11:10 am Singapore time (0310 GMT), the ICE February Brent futures contract was down 2 cents/b (0.04%) from the Dec. 15 settle at $50.74/b while the NYMEX January light sweet crude contract was unchanged at $47.62/b. Brent had risen 0.93% on Dec. 15 to settle at $50.76/b. The API reported a 1.97 million-barrel build in US crude inventories in the week ended Dec. 11. The API data also indicated unimproved fundamentals in downstream markets as it showed an 828,000-barrel and a 4.76 million-barrel build in gasoline and distillate inventories, respectively. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency on […]