VIENNA, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The weekly average oil price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped to 87.18 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, sharply down by 3.65 dollars from the previous week, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.
OPEC's daily average oil price maintained its downtrend last week, and dropped from 88.62 dollars to 86.06 dollars per barrel over the last five trading days, which was also the first five-day consecutive drop since last December.
Economists believe worries in the market about the slowdown of the economy in the United States, dragged down by the domestic credit crisis and the depression of real estate market, is the main reason detaining oil prices.
Furthermore, the increase of commercial oil stocks in the U.S. and warmer than average seasonal weather in the U.S. and most areas of Europe are also helping to ease doubts over insufficient supply.
The cartel's special conference on Feb. 1 in Vienna will intensively discuss the current supply and demand in the international oil market.
Despite the U.S. call on the cartel to increase its output, Al-Badri, OPEC general secretary, said recently that skyrocketing oil prices should be attributed to speculation and regional instability, an OPEC output increase was "not necessary at present."
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