Brent crude futures shed 65 cents, or 1.0%, to settle at $66.95 a barrel

Oil prices dropped 1% to a two-week low on Thursday on a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories last week and expectations that OPEC+ producers will increase output targets at a meeting this weekend.

Brent crude futures shed 65 cents, or 1.0%, to settle at $66.95 a barrel.

That was the lowest close for Brent since August 20.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said energy firms added 2.4 million barrels of crude into storage during the week ended August 29 as refineries headed into maintenance season.

That was higher than the 0.6-million-barrel increase that market sources said the American Petroleum Institute (API) trade group cited in its figures on Wednesday.

This is a little bit of a bearish report with that crude build, said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital.

Eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies in OPEC+ will consider further increases to production in October at a meeting on Sunday, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Another boost would mean that OPEC, which pumps nearly half of the world’s oil, would be starting to unwind a second layer of output cuts of around 1.65 million barrels per day, or 1.6% of world demand, more than a year ahead of schedule.

A potential OPEC+ production hike would send a strong signal that regaining market share takes priority over price support, according to Tamas Varga, a senior analyst at brokerage and consulting firm PVM Oil Associates.

OPEC+ has already agreed to raise output targets by around 2.2 million barrels per day from April to September, in addition to a 300,000-bpd quota increase for the United Arab Emirates.