The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell 300,000 barrels in the week ending September 4. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 2.6 million barrels. Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 48 million barrels over the last 21 weeks, with US crude inventories up 2.8 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR. For the week ending September 4, another 1.2 million barrels left the SPR to aid commercial inventories,…