The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise crude oil inventory build of 6.9 million barrels for the week ending December 21, compared to analyst expectations that we would see a draw in crude oil inventories of 2.869 million barrels . The surprise build will likely push oil prices further down, continuing the seesaw prices of the Christmas week. Last week, the API reported a surprise crude build of more than 3 million barrels . A day later, the EIA showed a small draw of 500,000 barrels . Leading up to today’s data release from the API, which is on a two-day delay due to the Christmas holiday, crude oil prices saw a big dip, with WTI and Brent completely erasing big gains from Wednesday. At 4:13pm EST on Wednesday, WTI was trading up on the day $4.42 (+10.39%) per barrel at $46.95. And while that significant of a […]