The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s average crude oil price dipped to 67.90 U.S. dollars per barrel on Monday, 0.87 dollars lower than that in the previous day, the cartel's secretariat said on Tuesday.

After two consecutive days' soaring, OPEC's crude oil price hit a new record of 68.77 dollars per barrel on last Friday, 0.37 dollars higher than the last record of 68.40 dollars per barrel on May 2.

OPEC's weekly average crude oil prices reached 68.31 dollars per barrel in the first week of July, 1.53 dollars higher than the prices in the same term of May.

Marketing analysts attributed the drop on Monday to investors' arbitrage.

They also believe that as the forthcoming G-8 summit and the meeting of foreign ministers from China, Russia, United States, Britain, France and Germany on Wednesday are to discuss Iran's nuclear issue, the world oil prices would still stay at a high level in the short terms.

Due to the output increase from Iraq, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, OPEC's overall production in June rose by 200,000 barrels per day to 29.95 million barrels per day from 29.75 million barrels per day in May, according to the Statistic of Platts, a major provider of energy information around the world.

Iraq's daily production rose by 160,000 barrels, from 1.96 million barrels per day in May to 2.12 million barrels per day, the highest level since October 2004.

Source: Xinhua