OPEC weekly oil prices drop below 50 dollars

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

VIENNA, Nov. 24 (Chinese media) -- The weekly average price of oil produced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has dropped to a three-and-a-half-year low of 45.40 U.S. dollars per barrel (dpb), the cartel said Monday.

OPEC's weekly average price fell to 45.20 dpb during the third week of May 2005 and did not again exceed 80 dpb until mid-October of 2007. Prices began to surge after that, topping 138.31 dpb during the first week of July 2008.

Prices began declining after that, however, diving to 45.40 last week, making a total drop of 53.81 percent.

Daily prices saw successive declines during trading last week with an average daily drop of 1.1 dpb, the Vienna-based cartel said.