U.S. crude oil inventories have finally started to decline, a potentially momentous turning point in the three-year market downturn. Oil storage levels have been climbing relentlessly since the end of last summer, but inventories have been dropping ever so slightly since early April. That should be cause for celebration. Surely the end of one of the biggest headaches for oil markets should spark an oil price rally? While the data seems to be encouraging, there are growing fears that the glut could simply be shifting from upstream to downstream. The U.S. refining industry has ramped up processing over the past month, boosting processing by more than 1 million barrels per day (mb/d). For the week ending on April 21 , U.S. refineries churned out an average of 17.285 mb/d, “ a record for any time of year and coming well in advance of the summer driving season, ” as […]