VIENNA, June 27, (Xinhua) -- The weekly average price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) kept falling last week to 106.44 U.S. dollars a barrel, said the Vienna-based cartel Monday.
After falling for two consecutive weeks, OPEC oil price dropped slightly by 0.59 dollars in the third week of this month and decreased more strongly by 4.88 dollars last week.
The strength of the U.S. dollar increases price pressure on oil consumption in the non-dollar regions, while the U.S. economic growth has shown signs of a slowdown. Investors are also worried that the Chinese economy will slow down.
All these factors have, to some extent, diminished the prospects of increasing demand and suppressed international oil prices.
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced Thursday that 60 million barrels of crude oil reserves would be put into the market, posing direct pressure on international oil prices and leading to a significant price decline.
The IEA explained that it launched part of the strategic oil reserves to offset supply shortages on the world oil market caused by volatile situations in the war-torn and oil-producing Libya.
However, some oil experts said the move was mainly due to recent high international oil prices.
Jan Hatzius, chief economist of Goldman Sachs, said IEA's sale would have no long-term impact on international oil prices, which he predicted could rise to 140 dollars a barrel.
Some OPEC member states such as Iran, current holder of the rotating OPEC presidency, have expressed dissatisfaction with IEA's release of oil reserves.
Iran's OPEC representative Mohammed Ali Chatibi said IEA's move was a "political show," and that Americans and Europeans are forcing an "artificial" oil price slump on the market.
He also warned that the current fall in oil price caused by extra IEA oil is only temporary and that future crude oil may be more expensive.
