US Crude Oil Inventories Build As Hormuz Shipping Headache Drags On

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, shedding just over 57 million barrels over the last thirteen weeks, US crude inventories are only down 7 million barrels so far this year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR. For the week ending…