Oil prices came under pressure Thursday ahead of a meeting of the Opec+ oil alliance.
In the morning, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost $114.10.
That was $1.80 less than the day before.
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell $1.90 to $112.89.
Before a regular Opec+ meeting, two press reports caused a lot of speculation.
The Financial Times reported that oil giant Saudi Arabia has signaled to Western countries that it will expand production if Russian production falls significantly.
The production increases planned for September would be brought forward to July and August.
The country has changed stance to calm oil prices as part of a rapprochement with the US government, the report said.
According to the newspaper, the official announcement could already be made at the Opec+ meeting this Thursday.
Saudi Arabia, as the largest producer within the OPEC oil production organization, had so far stuck to the specified increase steps despite pressure from the USA.
Russia also joined the organization through Opec+.
Some members of the oil cartel are considering excluding Russia from an oil exploration deal, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.
In principle, it is expected before the meeting that the oil association will again moderately expand its production.
However, there is speculation that large producers such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates could already expand their production more significantly.
This is also brought up in the Financial Times article.