By Dan Molinski 

-- Oil prices edged higher Thursday on declining U.S. inventories--a trend that could continue as the summer-driving season approaches and refineries start boosting both their crude intake.

-- West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, ended 0.4% higher at $64.00 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. With markets closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday, oil prices ended the week 0.2% higher, marking a seventh straight weekly gain, the longest streak since February 2014.

-- Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, closed up 0.5% at $71.97 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

HIGHLIGHTS

U.S. Supplies: Prices were higher Thursday morning as markets reacted to Wednesday's weekly report from the Energy Information Administration, which showed U.S. oil inventories fell by 1.4 million barrels last week--the first decline in four weeks.

The reduction in crude inventories was largely a result of a drop in crude-oil imports rather than U.S. refineries processing more oil. Data showed U.S. refineries are operating at less than 88% of their potential versus typical capacity utilization rates of well over 90% for this time of year. But those rates are expected to rise in the coming weeks, which could reduce the amount of oil in storage.

"Refinery utilization remains relatively low at 87.7% with turnaround season under way, exacerbated by a series of ongoing unplanned outages," said analysts at Houston-based Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. in a research note. "We expect utilization to trend higher as we shift into May as driving season picks up."

Tight Range: Despite oil's modest gains Thursday, U.S. prices over the past week have mostly been rangebound. They have yet to surpass a five-month closing high of $64.61 a barrel reached April 10. That has led to speculation that the price rally may run out of steam. WTI is up 6% this month and more than 40% this year.

"The complex is still in the late stage of a 40% bull move in our opinion and is increasingly in need of assistance from either the macroeconomic or geopolitical support," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates, in a note to clients. "All factors considered, we are maintaining a short-term bullish bias while also cautioning against fresh aggressive entry into the long side at the present time."

INSIGHT

Schlumberger: Oil-field services giant Schlumberger on Thursday reported a 20% fall in net income but better-than-expected revenue for the first quarter. Chief Executive Paal Kibsgaard predicted oil prices will continue to rise this year due to increased global demand and slowing production growth in certain regions.

"From a macro perspective, we expect the oil market sentiment to steadily improve over the course of 2019, supported by a solid demand outlook combined with the OPEC and Russia production cuts taking full effect, slowing shale oil production growth in North America, and a further weakening of the international production base as the impact of four years of underinvestment becomes increasingly evident," the CEO said.

Mr. Kibsgaard also warned that shale producers face geological issues that could slow production, as drillers try to cram as many wells as possible onto their land and newer wells interfere with existing ones.

AHEAD

-- The EIA releases its weekly oil inventory report on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET.

--Christopher Matthews contributed to this report.

Write to Dan Molinski at Dan.Molinski@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 18, 2019 15:47 ET (19:47 GMT)