After a continuous surge in crude oil prices over the last three weeks, the weekly average crude oil prices for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week declined to 57.12 US dollars per barrel, the cartel's secretariat said on Monday.

In the first three trading days last week, the daily crude oil prices kept falling from 58.2 US dollars to 57.14 dollars, down as much as 1.06 dollars, mainly due to the expectations that the present oil output would not be cut.

As what had been expected, OPEC oil ministers reached an agreement on Thursday to maintain crude production at existing levels and the group was also happy with prices around 60 dollars per barrel.

The crude oil prices, however, declined sharply on Friday, losing 0.47 dollars per barrel, to a record three-week low price of 56.73 dollars.

Some market analysts, who are against the cartel's decision, said the approaching of the high-demand American summer driving season had already set the forecasts for crude oil stocks rising.

Ten of the OPEC member countries without Iraq and Angola, which supply more than one third of the world's oil, cut its productions twice in November last year and February this year, by a total target of 1.7 million barrels per day.

Source: Xinhua