US Crude Oil Inventories—and Prices—Contract

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell this week, shrinking by 2.4 million barrels in the week ending August 15. Analysts had expected a 1.2-million-barrel draw. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up nearly 8 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) rose by 400,000 barrels to 403.4 million barrels in the week ending August 15.…