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Page added on September 8, 2009

Saudi Arabia Naimi says oil price is satisfactory

The global crude oil market is in good shape with prices between $68 and $73 a barrel satisfactory for both consumers and producers, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Vienna.

“The price is good for everybody, consumers, producers,” he said as he arrived in Vienna for tomorrow’s OPEC meeting, where the group is expected to leave output quotas unchanged. “The market is very well supplied,” Al-Naimi said.

Several members of OPEC have said the group should keep its production target unchanged at 24.845 million barrels a day when it meets tomorrow. All of the 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted the organization will keep quotas steady.

Saudi Arabia has led OPEC through the largest supply cut in its history to boost oil prices to the level publicly favored by Saudi King Abdullah, $75 a barrel. Oil reached that price on the New York Mercantile Exchange last month after trading as low as $32.70 in January.

“With a price ranging between $68 and $73 what else do you want,” Naimi said when asked if Saudi Arabia was satisfied with current price levels. Crude futures for October delivery were at $68.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:55 a.m. in Singapore.

Saudi Arabia has done the most among OPEC states to implement the record production cut set December 2008 in Algeria. The nation pumped 8.04 million barrels a day last month, according to Bloomberg data, just below its official limit of 8.051 million a day.