11:22 ET - Oil prices reduce earlier declines and are now only slightly lower despite a mostly bearish weekly EIA report. "Inventories have built by a whopping 9.3M bbls, led by the refinery utilization rate dropping to its lowest since hurricane Harvey in September 2017," says Matt Smith at ClipperData. "One saving grace for the bulls is that the drop to such a lowly level of refining activity has helped to encourage solid draws to both gasoline and distillate inventories. Last night's API report [which showed an even larger 10.5M-bbl rise] also helped soften the blow of such a large crude build today." WTI was recently 0.2% lower at $53.28/bbl. (dan.molinski@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 17, 2019 11:38 ET (15:38 GMT)