Oil prices face downward pressure Thursday after Saudi Arabia is reportedly ready to supply more oil if Russian output falls due to tighter sanctions imposed because of the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.

A barrel of European reference oil, Brent, trades for USD 114.05 Thursday morning against USD 117.21 Wednesday afternoon. US benchmark crude, West Texas Intermediate, sells concurrently for USD 112. 98 against USD 116.13.

According to Financial Times, Saudi Arabia has made its readiness to boost oil supply known to Western countries, writes Bloomberg News ahead of today’s monthly meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its OPEC+ allies. The cartel is expected to approve a moderate production increase for July.

The US government has repeatedly urged OPEC+ to increase output to more quickly counteract rising gasoline prices as well as the highest inflation seen in decades – issues compounded by the war in Ukraine.

OPEC+ will expectedly approve raising output by 430,000 barrels per day in July, even though the organization has struggled to reach its modest targets for increased production in recent months.

”The downward trajectory for oil boils down to just how deep OPEC is willing to dip into its spare capacity without entirely turning its back on Russia,” comments Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management:

”A shift in strategy, even a slow drip response, brings a new downside risk for oil.”

Thursday afternoon, oil traders await the weekly inventory tally from the US that was postponed one day due to Memorial Day earlier this week.

Elsewhere in commodities, one troy ounce of gold trades for USD 1,848.65 against USD 1,843.02 Wednesday afternoon.

Gold gained value Wednesday after JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon warned investors to prepare for an ”economic hurricane”.

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