OPEC weekly oil prices on roller coaster ride

The weekly average crude oil prices of OPEC countries showed a high frequency of oil price changes last week and seemed to be on a roller coaster ride. On the five trading days from Nov. 2 to Nov. 6, OPEC oil prices fluctuated wildly, ranging from $74.95 per barrel on Nov. 2 to $77.60 on Nov. 4, only one cent lower than the highest record this year. However, it dropped to $76.25 on Nov. 6.

It was the second time that OPEC weekly average oil prices had been maintained above 70 dollars a barrel for four consecutive weeks since August, but the price only saw a weekly increase of 0.33. dollars last week, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.

Data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by nearly 3.94 million barrels due to reduced imports, pushing the international oil prices up to a high level last Wednesday. The US unemployment rate climbed close to 10 percent and the Federal Reserve announced its decision to maintain the benchmark overnight lending rate at a very low level.

These messages suggested that the US economic recovery was very fragile, which largely suppressed the oil prices and led to a sharp decline in international oil prices on last weekend.

In the context of a fragile economic recovery across the world, some OPEC members believed that current international crude oil supplies in the market remained in surplus and therefore it should not increase oil production, though the oil price has doubled this year.

Tags:  oil prices, OPEC