Oil edged up on Thursday, buoyed by a positive demand forecast in the United States following a larger-than-anticipated drop in fuel inventories and a decline in the value of the greenback.

Brent crude advanced by 0.5% at $71.12 per barrel, touching a peak not seen since the third of March, while US WTI added 0.6% to $67.58 per barrel.

U.S. government data revealed a larger-than-anticipated decline in distillate inventories, including diesel and heating oil, which decreased by 2.8 million barrels last week, surpassing the 300,000-barrel drop predicted in a Reuters survey

Analysts reported that global oil demand reached an average of 101.8 million barrels per day (bpd), marking a yearly rise of 1.5 million bpd.

U.S. crude inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels, surpassing the predicted rise of 512,000 barrels forecasted in a previous Reuters survey.

The decline of the dollar, which has been weakening since the end of February, also supported the rise in oil prices.

OANDA's Wong noted that bearish factors in the near term include the anticipated production increase from OPEC+ members and a potentially weak U.S. S&P Global Services PMI flash reading for March.