OPEC crudes slip USD 3.17 per barrel

The price of the 12-crude basket of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) shed USD 3.17 on Friday to come to USD 102.08 per barrel (pb), down from Thursday\'s USD 106.08 pb. The OPEC bulletin added that the basket average price for May came to USD 109.94 pb, compared to USD 118.09 pb in April. This means the annual average price from start of year till end of last week comes to USD 110.01 pb, which compares to last year\'s USD 77.45 pb. The Kuwaiti crude is one in a basket of 12 produced by OPEC members, along with Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE), and Merey (Venezuela). OPEC ministers had agreed in their last meeting, June 8, to keep to the current output level of 24.590 million barrels per day and recommended a close monitoring of market conditions over the next three months to determine OPEC strategy for the last quarter of 2011