KUWAIT CITY, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Recent output cuts of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have thwarted a looming price slump of 20 dollars per barrel, a Kuwaiti oil official said here on Monday.

    "But for OPEC cut decisions, oil prices could have slipped to 20 dollars per barrel," Nawal al-Fezeaa, Assistant Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Oil, told the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

    She hailed the OPEC member countries' abidance by the output cutback as "good," saying that commitment to the cartel's relevant decisions hit roughly 80 percent.

    According to the Vienna-based cartel on Monday, the weekly average prices of OPEC dropped to 39.45 U.S. dollars per barrel (dpb) last week, the second below 40 dpb dive since the second week of this year.

    At a meeting in Algeria in December, the cartel, which provides two thirds of the world's oil consumption, slashed its output by 2.2 million barrels a day, taking the total cutback decided in 2008 up to 4.2 million barrels, with a view to reining in dwindling oil prices.

    The global financial crisis and its concomitant ramifications have lowered world demand for oil, prompting OPEC to live up to its responsibility by struggling to curb controllably dipping oil prices through output cutback, the Kuwaiti official said.

    She predicted 2009 to be a hard year for the international oil market given the fact that the global economy is still ailing.

    She said global demand for oil is negatively affected by the economic situation, and that low oil prices would put oil investments and projects on the back burner.

    Mammoth oil projects are so costly that money, well-trained personnel and new technology are required and that legislative changes need to be introduced, she said.

    A delay in the execution of oil projects will affect oil supplies in the future, the official said, noting that consuming countries have begun to be aware of that fact by seeking appropriate oil prices.