The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 2.603 million barrels in the week ending July 17. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 564,000 barrels.
Although commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have been falling rapidly for three months now, US crude inventories are only down 7 million barrels so far this year.
For the week ending July 17, another 5.1 million barrels left the SPR, bringing the new total to 316.5 million barrels.
US production has risen over the last few weeks, with production for the week ending July 10 rising to 13.861 million bpd.
As of now, Brent crude is trading at $91.36, while WTI is at $84.51.
