The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a build this week for crude oil of 1.035 million barrels, while analysts predicted a bigger build of 2.321 million barrels. The build comes as the Department of Energy released 6.9 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in the week ending September 16, leaving the SPR with 427.2 million barrels. In the week prior, the API reported a build in crude oil inventories of 6.035 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 200,000 barrels. WTI fell on Tuesday prior to the data release. At 3:16 p.m. ET, WTI was trading down $1.54 (-1.80%) on the day at $84.19 per barrel—a roughly $2 per barrel decrease on the week. Brent crude was trading down $1.40 (-1.52%) on the day at $90.60—a $2 decrease on the week. U.S. crude oil production data for the week ending September 9 stayed the same for […]