The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a large build this week for crude oil of 4.762 million barrels, while analysts predicted a draw of 1.933 million barrels. The build comes as the Department of Energy released 6.9 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in Week Ending July 8, to 485.1 million barrels. U.S. crude inventories have shed some 63 million barrels since the start of 2021 but the net losses have been negligible since the start of 2020, according to API data. In the week prior, the API reported a build in crude oil inventories of 3.825 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 1.1 million barrels. WTI continued to slide on Wednesday on recession fears, and fears of a China demand slump on the presence of the new Covid variant there. WTI was trading down 8.23% on the day at 2:50 p.m. ET in the […]