Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said yesterday that the price of oil is “perfect” and that crude inventories in international markets are on the decline.
“Everything is so good now, we don’t have to think very hard,” al-Naimi told reporters in Cairo, reflecting an agreement among OPEC members to keep production quotas unchanged at a conference later this month in Angola.
Asked if he was not worried about the high level of inventories in international markets, al-Naimi said: “Of course.”
“Inventories are coming down, the price is perfect and all investors, consumers, producers are all very happy,” the oil minister of the world’s largest crude exporter said.
Al-Naimi is in the Egyptian capital to attend a ministerial meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).
On Friday, Arab oil ministers said the OPEC cartel should keep production unchanged when it meets later this month as crude prices are close to the target of US$80 a barrel.
“Why should we raise output?” al-Naimi, asked on arrival in the Egyptian capital for the OAPEC conference. “We still have time [for the meeting]. But right now, the price is okay, between US$70 and US$80. It’s close to the target that we set at US$75 a barrel.”
The oil ministers of Algeria, Libya and Qatar also supported a rollover of oil output when OPEC ministers meet on Dec. 22 in Luanda, Angola, although they said the market was over-supplied.
“OPEC should probably not change production,” at the Luanda meeting, said Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil on Friday, but he added that crude prices were slightly low.
Last year, prices slumped to just above US$30 a barrel due to the impact of the global financial meltdown, before recovering to between US$70 and US$80 at present.
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