NEW YORK: Oil tumbled over 4 percent from a seven-year high on Tuesday after Russia said some of its military units were returning to their bases after exercises near Ukraine, a move that appeared to de-escalate tension between Moscow and the West. An earlier Interfax report on the troop movements had prompted oil to extend losses. “We went from fearing that our worst fears would be realized to maybe there"s a diplomatic offramp here after all. That brings a lot of relief in terms of keeping supplies on the market,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. “We can’t afford to lose a single barrel these days.” Brent crude fell $3.99, or 4.1 percent, to $92.49 a barrel by 11:11 a.m. EST (1611 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate crude fell $4.28, or 4.5 percent, to $91.18 a barrel. Both oil benchmarks hit their highest since September 2014 on Monday, with Brent touching $96.78 and WTI reaching $95.82. The price of Brent jumped 50 percent in 2021, while WTI soared around 60 percent, as a global recovery in demand from the COVID-19 pandemic strained supply. US-Iran talks Investors are also watching talks between the US and Iran on reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, which could potentially allow for higher Iranian oil exports. US inventories Underlining the tight supply and demand balance, the latest weekly reports on US inventories were expected to show another drop in crude stocks, which are at over three-year lows. US oil drillers are trying to boost output fast, but their efforts have been hit by a shortage of sand to use for fracking operations. Crude output is expected to hit records in parts of Texas and New Mexico, the heart of US shale activity. Sand supplies are so tight that it is slowing the pace of work for some oil drillers, and higher costs for sand are eating into the bottom line for others. But demand is still heavy as drillers look to cash in on higher crude prices. “We can’t get enough sand. We’re running less than the number of (fracking) stages we could pump in a day because we’ve run out of sand every day,” said Michael Oestmann, CEO of private equity-backed Tall City Exploration, which operates in the Permian basin of west Texas. “Ultimately it will slow everyone down if it does not resolve itself.”