( dpa ) - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was marked by a significant increase of almost three dollars at the beginning of the week, OPEC said Tuesday.
One barrel ( 159 litres) of crude produced by cartel members stood at 89.18 dollars on Monday, up 2.94 dollars from last Friday, the Vienna-based OPEC Secretariat said.
The main reason for the unusually sharp spike was the threat by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to stop oil sales to the United States, OPEC analysts said.
Chavez engaged in a legal battle with the US oil company ExxonMobil over a nationalized project and said on the weekend that Venezuela, the US's fourth largest crude supplier, would stop oil deliveries if Exxon continued pursuing compensation claims.