The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) weekly average crude oil prices kept rising for three weeks to hit 94.88 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.
According to the cartel's secretariat, the daily average oil prices hit a new record of 96.50 dollars per barrel (dpb) last Friday, surpassing the previous record of 95.20 dpb on Feb. 27.
The daily average oil prices rose nearly 3 dollars from 93.63 dollars per barrel on Monday to 96.50 dpb on Friday during last week.
Situations in northern Iraq, attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria and the rapid decline of exchange rate of the U.S. dollar were the main reasons behind the rising prices.
Meanwhile, the international market has become more sensitive thanks to the upcoming ministerial conference on March 5. Oil experts are concerned that the conference might decide to maintain the current output of crude oil.
Due to a warmer weather and less oil consumption in the northern hemisphere, it would be impossible for the upcoming meeting to increase oil output. However, it would also be less possible to cut down output due to situations in Iraq and Venezuela, both OPEC member countries.
Some experts also pointed out that in order to avoid having overstocked oil products due to the possibly decline in oil demand, some OPEC member countries had already privately begun to reduce output.
Source:Xinhua
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