This week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated the inventory draw for crude oil to be 6.432 million barrels, after analysts predicted a much smaller 3.40 million barrel draw . U.S. crude inventories shed a total of some 75 million barrels over the course of 2021. In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 3.09 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 3.233 million barrels. Oil prices were trading up on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release, after OPEC+ decided on Tuesday to increase its oil production quota by another 400,000 bpd—largely as expected. WTI was trading up 1.60% to $77.30 on the day at 10:45 a.m. EDT, but up $1.30 per barrel on the week. Brent was trading up by 1.58% at $80.23 on the day and up $1.20 on the week. U.S. oil production has been on a […]