A day after the API reported a 5.04-million-barrel decline in commercial U.S. crude oil inventories, the Energy Information Administration crushed hopes of a prolonged price recovery by reporting a build of 2.3 million barrels for the week to January 13, to a total of 485.5 million barrels. Last week, the EIA reported an increase of 4.1 million barrels in commercial crude oil inventories, versus analyst expectations of a 930,000-barrel build. According to the EIA, in the week to January 13 refineries processed 16.5 million barrels of crude daily, down by 639,000 bpd on the week, producing 9 million barrels per day of gasoline, down on the previous week’s 9.7 million barrels daily. Inventories of the fuel rose by 6 million barrels in the period, compared with a 5-million-barrel increase in the week to January 6. Yesterday, the API estimated that gasoline inventories had jumped by a hefty 9.75 million […]