Oil prices are falling on Thursday on information from the Financial Times newspaper about Saudi Arabia’s readiness to increase production in case of a significant drop in oil production in Russia due to sanctions. “Saudi Arabia is aware of the risks and realizes it is not in its interest to lose control of oil prices,” a source told the FT.

Experts of the OPEC+ technical committee at a meeting on Wednesday lowered the value of the expected surplus of oil in the global market in 2022 to 1.4 million bpd from 1.9 million bpd forecasted a month ago, sources told Interfax. Inflation, Russia-Ukraine conflict, COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, release of strategic reserves by consuming countries and other factors were taken into account in the forecast.

The OPEC+ ministerial monitoring committee will meet first on Thursday, followed by a full ministerial meeting.

An FT source said Saudi Arabia and the UAE were exploring the possibility of announcing their intention to increase production at Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting, but had not made a final decision on the matter.

“The eventual rate of decline in oil prices will depend on how much spare capacity OPEC countries can tap without completely turning their backs on Russia,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, as quoted by Bloomberg.

The cost of August futures for Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures exchange by 8:33 Moscow time on Thursday is $114.40 per barrel, which is $1.89 (1.63%) below the price at the close of the previous session. At the end of trading on Wednesday, these contracts rose by $0.69 (0.6%) to $116.29 per barrel.

The price of WTI oil futures for July at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time decreased by $2.04 (1.77%) – to $113.22 per barrel. On Wednesday, the cost of these contracts increased $0.59 (0.5%), to $115.26 per barrel.