The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s weekly average crude oil price reached 70.35 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, 1.75 dollars higher than the prices in the previous week, the cartel's secretariat said on Monday.

It's also the first time that OPEC's weekly average oil prices broke through 70 dollars per barrel in history.

Due to the geopolitical tension in the Middle East, OPEC's oil prices rose consecutively in the first three trading days last week.

After hitting the peak of 71.20 dollars per barrel last Wednesday, the prices dropped slightly, ending at 71.09 dollars per barrel last Friday.

The British Petroleum (BP) announced last Sunday that it would cease the production in one of its oil fields in Alaska, which has led to the rise of international oil prices.

OPEC expressed worry about the BP's decision in a statement on Monday. But an OPEC official told media that OPEC is capable of offsetting the drop in oil supply in international market caused by the BP decision.

Market analysts believed the Iranian nuclear issue, the tension in the Middle East, the capacity limit of oil refineries in the world and the potential hurricane threat facing the Mexican Gulf would aggravate the worry about world oil supply.

They forecast that the international oil prices might break through 80 dollars per barrel in August.

Source: Xinhua