The average crude oil price stood at 39.88 US dollars per barrel last week, up 2.98 dollars from the previous week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), based in Vienna, said on Monday (Jan. 17).

The crude oil price, based on the average price package of seven market-monitored crude, issued by the secretariat of OPEC, reached 41.08 dollars per barrel last Thursday, the first time OPEC's daily oil price broke 41 dollars since Nov. 3 last year.

The latest developments of OPEC oil price were due to "seasonal market characteristics, such as the shift towards colder weather in the northern hemisphere and a related decline in US crude and heating oil inventories," OPEC's Acting Secretary General Adnan Shihab-Eldin said in a statement Friday.

He said that supply disruptions in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria and Iraq have also played a role. However, "the world oil market is adequately supplied with crude," he said.

In Iraq, anti-occupation and anti-government rebels have stepped up attacks against the US forces in an attempt to hamper the country's preparations for its national elections on Jan. 30. Rebel attacks have resulted in reduction of oil exports from the Persian Gulf nation.

Last month, OPEC agreed to cut its daily output by 1 million barrels since Jan. 1 and is set to meet in Vienna on Jan. 30 to discuss output levels.

Analysts believe that the world market crude price may hit 50 dollars per barrel on the possible cut-back of the OPEC production and heightened geopolitical risks in the face of the election in Iraq.

Editor: Olivia