Oil prices dipped on Thursday after three days of gains, but were sitting just below 8-week highs on hopes that a steeper-than-expected decline in U.S. crude oil inventories will reduce a global oversupply. Brent crude futures were down 15 cents or 0.3 percent at $50.82 a barrel at 0150 GMT, after rising about 1.5 percent in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 14 cents or 0.3 percent to $48.61 a barrel. U.S. crude stocks fell sharply last week as refineries increased output and imports declined, while gasoline stocks decreased and distillate inventories fell, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. The 7.2 million barrel decline in crude inventories in the week ending July 21 was well above the 2.6 million barrel forecast. “This marks the fourth consecutive week that total hydrocarbon inventories have fallen during a time of year when they normally […]