The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a major draw of 7.839 million barrels in United States crude oil inventories, compared to analyst expectations of a modest draw of 2.272 million barrels for the week ending August 4. Gasoline inventories rose by 1.529 million barrels for the week ending August 4, compared to analyst expectations that inventories for the fuel would fall by 1.5 million barrels. Crude prices fell on Tuesday despite Saudi Arabia’s promise to curb in September crude oil exports to its prime market—Asia. Oil markets were holding onto a small sliver of hope that the most recent OPEC meeting would result in additional cuts, but the meeting was destined to be only about compliance—or noncompliance as the case may be—matters. Last week, reports surfaced that OPEC’s crude oil exports rose 388,000 bpd in July, according to figures from energy data provider Kpler. At 2:21pm, WTI had fallen […]