TEHRAN The price of OPEC's basket of seven crudes rose to $18.76 a barrel last week, compared with $18.01 two

weeks ago.

In December the basket price averaged $17.53 as opposed to $17.65 in November, 19.64 in October, $24.29 in Deptember, $24.46 in August and $23.73 in July.

For the 4th quarter of 2001, the basket price averaged $18.38 a barrel as opposed to $24.33 in the 3rd quarter.

For 2001 as a whole, the price of the basket averaged $23.12 a barrel, compared with $27.60 in 2000, 17.47 in 1999 and $12.28 in 1998.

The OPEC basket comprises Algeria's Saharan Blend, Indonesians Minas, Nigeria's Bonny light, Saudi Arabia's Arabian light, Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela's Tia Juana and Mexico's istmus crude.