Oil Prices Slip After API Reports Unexpected Inventory Build

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 622,000 barrels in the week ending August 22. Analysts had expected a 3.4-million-barrel draw. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up 7.4 million barrels, according to Oilprice calculations of API data.

Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 500,000 barrels to 404.7 million barrels in the week ending August 29.  At 2:14 pm ET, Brent crude…