Crude Oil Inventories Spike Threaten Price Rally

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose sharply this week, gaining an additional 7.1 million barrels in the week ending July 4, despite analysts estimating a 2.8-million-barrel draw. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up 11 million barrels, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) climbed 200,000 barrels to 403 million barrels in the week ending…