The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s average crude oil prices dropped slightly from a record high of 67 U.S. dollars per barrel last Thursday to 66.84 dollars per barrel by Friday, the cartel's secretariat said on Monday.

The drop, the first decline following four consecutive days of record highs in the cartel's average crude prices, came as many arbitragers sold out shares for arbitrage, said oil marketing analysts in Vienna.

OPEC's average crude oil prices last week hit a record high of 66.20 dollars per barrel.

At an informal conference in Doha, Qatar, OPEC decided on Monday to continue its oil output quota of 28 million barrels per day (bpd).

The OPEC ministers said in a statement, issued on Saturday on the sidelines of an international energy forum in Doha, that the supply from the organization in the market was sufficient, absolving it of responsibility for the recent oil price hike.

OPEC rotating President Edmund Daukoru, also Nigerian oil minister, said on Sunday that oil prices would fall from their current high of around 75 dollars per barrel to stabilize in the "upper fifties to lower sixties" if political tensions eased.

The oil price hike was driven by fears over Iran's nuclear issue and a possible summer energy supply shortage in the United States.

Iran is OPEC's No. 2 producer behind Saudi Arabia, with an output of 4 million bpd of oil, and a daily export figure of 2.4 million bpd.

Source: Xinhua