BEIJING (Reuters – Last week’s oil prices dropped by around $4 per barrel. This was after a U.S. official suggested that Russia is showing signs that it may be open to substantive negotiations regarding Ukraine.

Futures fell by 4.12, or 3.6%, at $108.55/barrel at 0115 GMT Monday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $3.93, or 3.7%, to $105.40 per barrel

These contracts are now up nearly 40% since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, February 24, 2014.

U.S. deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman claimed that Russia showed signs it could be ready to hold substantive talks over Ukraine. However, Moscow’s invading force has disrupted energy markets around the world.

Brent dropped 4.8% while U.S. WTI lost 5.7%. Both posted their sharpest weekly drop since November. Both contracts reached their highest level since 2008 last week due to supply issues after the United States, along with its European allies, considered banning Russian oil imports.

Although the U.S. did later announce a ban on Russian oil imports, and Britain promised to phase them out over the next year, price pressure was fueled by statements by an Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates that said the UAE supports increased production and encourages OPEC’s consideration of higher output.

OPEC+ or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has been having trouble meeting existing output quotas because of low investments and a shortage of capacity to boost production.

The U.S. ban against Russian imports caused prices to rise sharply at first. However, the Europeans did not join the ban, so the threat of tighter oil markets is now discounted,” ANZ Research analysts wrote in a Monday note.

Russia, which exports around 7,000,000 barrels of oil per day (7% of total global supply), is the top-exporter of both crude and refined products.

According to the RIA news agency, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson said that talks between Russia and Ukraine were not happening right now. However they will resume on Monday.

Peskov’s comments were made after Oleksiy Arestovych, the Ukrainian presidential advisor, stated that Russia and Ukraine had been actively engaged in talks Sunday.