This week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated the inventory draw for crude oil to be 815,000 barrels. U.S. crude inventories have shed some 61 million barrels since the beginning of the year, and while this is the typical time for rebuilding crude stocks, no such additions to crude inventory have been happening on any steady basis. Analyst expectations for the week were for a larger draw of 2.60 million barrels for the week. In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 3.089 million barrels, compared to the 2.093-million-barrel build that analysts had predicted. Oil prices were trading down by more than 1% on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release as Omicron fears hang around the industry’s neck, and as a new IEA report suggested that it sees supplies rebounding and demand faltering under Omicron—a recipe that could increase inventories. With the […]