The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a large draw in crude oil inventory of 5.265 million barrels for the week ending May 24, coming in over analyst expectations of a 857,000-barrel drawdown in inventories. Last week, the API reported the latest in a string of surprise builds in crude oil inventories, the last of which was 2.4 million barrels . A day later, the EIA estimated that US inventories had increased by 4.7 million barrels . Even with this week’s draw, the net build is still a significant 26.65 million barrels for the 22-week reporting period so far this year, using API data. To compare, this is what the graph looked this this same week in 2017: Oil prices rose briefly on Wednesday as news that flooding might impact oil flowing near Cushing, Oklahoma. But news of the escalating China/US trade dispute pushed prices lower, with WTI falling $0.31 […]