SPR Sinks Toward Operational Minimum as U.S. Crude Inventories Build

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 4.2 million barrels in the week ending August 21. Analysts had expected a 1.9 million-barrel build. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 328,000. Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 45 million barrels over the last nineteen weeks, with US crude inventories up 5.8 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR. For the week ending August 21, another 3.7 million…