OPEC Weekly Oil Price Slightly Retreats

The weekly average oil price of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) retreated slightly to 129.04 U.S. dollars per barrel (dpb) last week, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.
The price was only 0.70 dollars lower than the record price set during the second week of June.

Since the daily price had topped 130.87 dpb on June 9, the price kept fluctuating in a narrow range of between 128.45 dpb and129.98 dpb during nine trading days.
Experts said the slight fluctuation showed the market was waiting for the final decision of the international energy meeting in Saudi Arabia on June 22.

During the meeting, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were willing to increase output. Saudi Arabia even promised that as long as the market required, it would not only increase output, but also further enhance its refining capacity.

But OPEC President Chakib Khelil again refused to increase the output. He emphasized that the high prices should not only be attributed to the oil supply.

Many factors such as supply, demand, settlement currencies, the geopolitical crisis as well as market speculation are all reasons behind the high oil prices, experts said. Furthermore, OPEC would not hold another conference to decide output quota before the routine summit in September.
The opinion differences of OPEC members would to a certain extent deepen the worries of the oil market. Analysts predict that the future outlook for oil prices is still not good.