OPEC weekly oil price gets nearly 90 U.S. dollars per barrel

The weekly average prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) continued to rise slightly last week, reaching 89.81 U.S. dollars per barrel, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.

OPEC weekly average prices kept increasing for the fourth week last week, hitting a record high since May 2008.

Last Wednesday the average OPEC basket crude oil price exceeded 90 dollars a barrel, rising to 90.02 dollars. It was the first time the price has jumped above 90 dollars in recent 27 months.

The last time the OPEC oil price surpassed 90 dollars was on Oct. 1, 2008, which was a turning point, as the oil prices, with the outbreak of the financial crisis, began to drop rapidly for three months since then and fell to less than 34 dollars per barrel.

However, this time, the OPEC average crude oil price kept rising after breaking 90 dollars last Friday and rose to 90.73 dollars a barrel.

Since it was Christmas holidays for Western countries, the market has not yet shown a clear response.

However, the positive prospect for the U.S. economic recovery and the increasing demands for heating oil due to the cold weather remain as the important factors supporting oil prices in the future.

Additionally, information from recent OPEC oil ministers meeting in Cairo showed that OPEC was satisfied with the current oil prices, and believed the market could withstand even higher oil prices. Therefore OPEC has no intention to change oil production quotas before June next year.

A possible increasing demand with an unchanged production would suggest a certain impact on oil prices.
(Source:xinhua)