As the price of Brent Crude hovers near the $80 mark, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a draw of 1.3 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending May 18, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a draw in crude oil inventories of 1.567 million barrels . Last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise build of 4.854 million barrels of crude oil. The API reported a build in gasoline inventories for week ending May 18 in the amount of 980,000 barrels—in contrast to the 1.388-million-barrel draw that analysts had expected. Oil prices rose Tuesday with Brent crude coming within pennies of the $80 threshold as concerns about tight supply fester in the wake of looming sanctions on Iran and impending doom of Venezuela’s oil industry. The usual round of OPEC statements that it would be willing to turn […]