The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a large surprise draw in crude oil inventory of 7.29 million barrels for the week ending March 1, coming in way over analyst expectations that predicted that crude oil inventories would build by 388,000 barrels . Last week, the API reported a surprise draw in crude oil of 4.2 million barrels . A day later, the EIA reported a larger one of 8.6 million barrels. Oil price movements were flat on Tuesday prior to the data release, with the WTI benchmark at 12:45 pm EST trading essentially flat on the day (-0.02%) at $56.58, about $1 over last week levels. The Brent benchmark, similarly, was trading perfectly flat at $65.67, less than $0.50 above last week’s levels. over the last week While 2019 has been a wild ride for oil prices, inventory moves for crude have been innocuous, with a net draw of […]