The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s weekly average crude oil price rose to 54.38 U.S. dollars per barrel, up 2.10 dollars from the previous week, the cartel's secretariat said on Monday.

Due to Nigeria's output cuts and the mounting tension between OPEC oil producer Iran and the United States, the daily oil price jumped to 54.99 dollars on Friday, the highest since Jan. 4.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Thursday that Iran would target U.S. interests worldwide if his country is attacked over its nuclear program, which intensified worries and pushed oil prices up.

Meanwhile, Nigeria on Friday cut seven cargoes of crude oil from its February export program to comply with an OPEC planned output reduction, and another 11 cargoes will be cut from the March program.

Market analysts said the unusually freezing cold weather conditions in the United States is also helping to boost the oil prices up, which is expected to continue in the coming two weeks.

However, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said OPEC might not cut or raise its output levels at its next official meeting in March, if the current market conditions remain as they are now, according to Monday's Wall Street Journal.

OPEC decided to cut production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) as from Feb. 1 at its meeting last December, following a reduction of 1.2 million bpd in November last year.

Source: Xinhua