Oil prices ended higher on Wednesday ahead of the release of U.S. petroleum data that was expected to show a ninth straight weekly drawdown in crude inventories. Brent futures LCOc1 settled 23 cents higher at $69.38 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 gained 24 cents to $63.97 per barrel. Both contracts climbed to their highest levels since December 2014 this week with Brent reaching $70.37 on Monday and WTI up to $64.89 on Tuesday. U.S. crude inventories were estimated to have fallen 3.5 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 12, according to a Reuters poll. [EIA/S] The American Petroleum Institute (API) report will be released at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT), followed by U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data on Thursday at 11 a.m. EST. Both were delayed by a day due to the U.S. Martin Luther King Jr. Day […]