The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s weekly average crude oil prices rose 0.42 U.S. dollars to 58.01 dollars per barrel last week, the cartel's secretariat said on Wednesday.

The international market reacted with restraint to OPEC's decision, made at the ministerial conference on Dec.14, to cut output by 500,000 barrels per day from February, 2007.

In the latest seven trading days, OPEC's daily average oil prices fluctuated between 57.43 and 58.40 U.S. dollars per barrel

OPEC's daily oil prices dropped to 57.45 U.S. dollars per barrel on Tuesday, the first trading day after the Security Council's resolution to impose sanctions against Iran, 0.53 dollars lower than the prices last Friday.

Marketing analysts believed that some OPEC members did not completely comply with the organization's last decision to cut output in October, which meant real crude production remained higher than the quota.

In the meantime, due to the calm winter in the United States, the market worries about a shortage of crude oil supply in winter have eased.

Market analysts did not believe the UN Security Council resolution on Iran would mean the country would cut its oil output. Therefore, the influence of the resolution on the international market would be limited.

The market now focused on the report of oil inventories, which will be issued by the U.S. Energy Department on Thursday.

Some analysts predict crude oil inventories of the U.S. to continue to fall and that gasoline inventories would rise, but that the fluctuation will not change the current movement of the international oil prices.

Source: Xinhua