The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 2.69 million barrels in the week ending July 30, despite analyst expectations for a 2 million barrel draw. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels. Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 58 million barrels over the last sixteen weeks, with US crude inventories down just 7.2 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR. For the week ending July…