The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) weekly average crude oil price dropped 1.02 U.S. dollars to 55.33 dollars per barrel last week, the cartel's secretariat said on Monday.

Up to Monday, OPEC's weekly oil prices had consecutively dropped for the last eight weeks.

OPEC's oil prices slipped to 55.13 dollars per barrel last Friday, 17.54 dollars down from the historical high of 72.67 dollars per barrel on Aug. 8.

Such negative information last week as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's claim of a nuclear test, the frustration of Iran's nuclear issue, and the hearsay of the reduction of OPEC's oil output, did not push up international oil prices.

Dr. Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru, rotating president of OPEC, proposed recently to cut oil output to ensure the oil price.

The member countries are preparing for a special ministerial conference, which may kick off on Oct. 18 or Oct. 19 in Vienna.

The last time for OPEC to cut the daily output quota was in 2004. Since June last year, OPEC kept its output quota consistently at 28 million barrels per day.

Some market analysts believed OPEC indeed produced 30 million barrels per day.

Source: Xinhua