The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a draw in crude oil inventories of 4.264 million barrels for the week ending August 14 A large build in gasoline inventories which offset a modest draw in crude oil inventories cooled bullish sentiment in markets somewhat on Tuesday afternoon. Oil prices were trading down on Tuesday afternoon before the API’s data release, and just minutes before the release, WTI had fallen by $0.33 (-0.77%) to $42.56. The Brent crude benchmark had fallen by $0.30 (-0.66%) to $45.07, even as OPEC showed this week that its overall July compliance rate was about as good as it could get. Oil production in the United States now appears to be leveling off after falling from a high of 13.1 million bpd on March 13 to 10.7 million bpd on August 7, according to the Energy Information Administration—the loss adding to OPEC’s production cuts. The API reported a build of 4.991 million barrels of gasoline for the week ending August 14. Distillate inventories were down by 964,000 barrels for the week, compared to last week’s 2.949-million-barrel draw, while Cushing inventory fell by a modest 590,000 barrels. Nick Note: As you can see they are converting crude oil into gasoline. And at the height of driving season… You see something that rarely happens: gasoline inventories builds. As far as crude oil that is simply Saudi Arabia holding inventories off the US market to make it appear demand is increasing…. Which it is not.