Surprise Crude Inventory Spike Slams Oil Prices

Crude oil inventories in the United States rose by a shocking 10.9 million barrels for the week ending October 4, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). Analysts had expected a build of 1.95 million barrels. For the week prior, the API reported a 1.5-million-barrel decrease in crude inventories. So far this year, crude oil inventories have slumped by just 5 million barrels since the beginning of the year, according to API data. On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum…