Oil Retreats On EIA Inventory Data

Crude oil prices moved lower today after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an inventory build of 2.4 million barrels for the week to February 3. This comes after three weeks of inventory builds, two of them quite substantial. At 455.1 million barrels, U.S. crude inventories are about 4 percent above the five-year average for this time of the year. In gasoline, the EIA estimated an inventory increase of 5 million barrels for the week to February 3, with production averaging 9.1 million barrels daily. This compared with an inventory…