U.S. Crude Oil Inventories Surge Fanning The Flames of Price Volatility

Crude oil inventories in the United States rose this week by 3.034 million barrels for the week ending April 5, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). Analysts had expected an inventory build of 2.415 million barrels. This comes after the API reported a 2.286 million barrel dip in crude inventories in the week prior. On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by another 0.6 million barrels as of April 5. Inventories are now at 364.2 million barrels—the…