EIA: commercial crude inventories fell by 3.6 million barrels Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels In middle distillates, the EIA estimated an inventory draw of 1.7 million barrels Crude oil prices recovered on Wednesday morning despite word from the Energy Information Administration of an inventory draw of 3.6 million barrels for the week to December 24. At 420 million barrels, crude oil inventories remain 7% below the five-year average—compared to 8% below the five-year average last week. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute estimated a crude oil inventory draw of 3.09 million barrels for the week to December 24. In gasoline, the API reported a draw of 319,000 barrels, with a decline of 716,000 in distillates. Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels in the reporting period, according to the EIA, which compared with a build of 5.5 million barrels for the previous week. Gasoline production increased last […]