VIENNA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s weekly average crude oil prices dropped 0.17 U.S. dollars to 54.89 dollars per barrel last week, the cartel's secretariat said on Monday.

    Following its decision on Oct. 20 to slash oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day from Nov. 1, OPEC's oil prices fluctuated within a narrow range of 54.16 to 55.74 dollars per barrel in the last five weeks, and daily oil prices hit the lowest of 53.37 dollars on Oct. 31.

    Market analysts believed, the narrow range of OPEC's oil prices fluctuation indicated that OPEC had achieved its purpose of arresting the sharp fall in oil prices through output cut.

    In the meantime, plentiful inventories of U.S. crude oil and the calm winter in the Northern Hemisphere helped to ease worry about oil supply in the market.

    They forecast that the international oil prices would continue to hover until the Northern Hemisphere's cold airflow set in, or OPEC cut the output again.

    The possibility of OPEC's another cut increased.

    Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi warned recently that OPEC would cut production again at its December meeting, should the recent production cuts fail to balance the market.

    OPEC's rotating President Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's Oil Minister, last Friday expressed his worry about the U.S. over high crude oil stock, and said that OPEC would be likely to cut its output at least by 500,000 barrels at December meeting.