VIENNA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The weekly average oil price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached a record high of 72.72 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, up 0.86 dollars from the previous week, the cartel's secretariat said on Monday.

    The OPEC daily average oil price had dropped to below 72 dollars since historical high of 72.83 dollars on July 16. With the drop in the gasoline stock in the United States and crude oil production in Angola, an OPEC member, OPEC's daily average oil prices rebounded to a new record of 73.67 dollars on July 20.

    Mohamed Hamli, rotating president of OPEC and energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, said on Sunday that no evidence could prove that the high oil prices had disturbed the growth of the global economy.

    However, he stressed that OPEC would increase crude oil supply if necessary, in a departure from a previous OPEC statement emphasizing that the current crude oil supply in the global market was sufficient, and that soaring oil prices should be attributed to geopolitical factors and insufficient refinery capabilities in the United States.

    Marketing analysts believed that the crude oil stock was still above a five-year average level in spite of last week's shrinkage in the U.S. gasoline stock, while the demand for gasoline in the United States would be close to peak in summer, leading international oil prices to still hover at a high level.