The OPEC daily basket price went up by 26 cents to 43.40 a barrel on Friday compared with USD 43.14 the previous day, the cartel said here on Monday.
The average monthly rate amounted to USD 59.46 pb in December, compared to USD 75.57 pb in November it said.
The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venez) During their recent annual meeting, OPEC oil ministers decided to maintain the cartel's production level at 30 million barrels per day.