As confusion among oil traders persists regarding where oil prices are going to go from here, the Energy Information Administration scored one for the bears by reporting a crude oil inventory build of 4.7 million barrels in the week to May 17. This compares with a build of 5.4 million barrels for the week before that and a 4-million-barrel draw a week before that: a mixed picture that does not help particularly in any attempt to gauge the immediate future of oil prices. The EIA also reported a 3.7-million-barrel rise in gasoline inventories for the eek to May 17 and a 800,000-barrel rise in distillate fuel inventories. These compared with a 1.1-million-barrel draw in gasoline inventories a week earlier and a 100,000-barrel increase in distillate fuel inventories a week earlier. In terms of production, refineries churned out 9.9 million bpd of gasoline last week, unchanged on a week earlier. […]