Oil prices in the current band of $70-$80 a barrel are satisfactory, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi told reporters on Friday. “Right now you see the price is okay between $70 and $80, it's close to the target we set, it's almost $75 - it's good,” Al-Naimi said, referring to the $75 level that he has said suited producers and consumers. In London, oil turned positive and rose above $77 on Friday as closely watched US data showed the smallest job loss figure since December 2007. Oil prices tumbled Friday in volatile trade, succumbing to a stronger dollar following an improved US jobs report picture. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, fell 99 cents to $75.47 a barrel. In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January dropped 84 cents to settle at $77.52 a barrel. The euro, which has been trending higher against the US currency, fell to less than $1.49 from more than $1.50. Al-Naimi was asked if he thought OPEC needed to raise its output targets when it meets on Dec. 22 in Angola. “Why should they raise output? We still have time, it depends,” he said. On the overhang of oil inventories on the world market, he said: “They are coming down.” Al-Naimi was speaking on his arrival in Cairo for a meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) on Saturday. The meeting brings together Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member countries Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, Qatar, UAE and Iraq. OAPEC does not set production targets for its members, which also include Syria, Egypt and Bahrain. “I think they are comfortable with where prices are now. I don't think anybody is suggesting this is justification for a rise in supply. Equally, they're not too worried right now about fundamentals,” said David Kirsch, director of market intelligence at PFC Energy in Washington. Meanwhile, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah Al-Attiyah said on Friday that the Dubai debt crisis would not impact oil prices, which last year had overcome an international financial meltdown. “It had an affect for two days as a psychological factor but then (oil prices) recovered,” he told reporters on arrival in Cairo for a ministerial conference of the OAPEC. “We saw the biggest financial problems, bigger than Dubai, by December 2008 and it was the worst financial crisis ... and energy (prices) recovered,” the minister said. Oil inventories are brimming and any recovery in demand is expected to be slow, but international benchmark US crude futures have more than doubled from just above $32 a barrel last December to above $76 now - roughly the level OPEC has said is high enough for producers and not too high for the still delicate world economy. “The oil price has not been the cause of surprise for us for some time, so there is really no need for OPEC to surprise the oil market,” one OPEC delegate said. Al-Attiyah agreed that OPEC should maintain its production levels, while Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem said “we should not do anything in Angola” regarding output quotas. OPEC president Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos of Angola said in November that a price of between $75 and $80 a barrel would be satisfactory. Khelil, however, said “there is too much oil” in the market and warned that if the global economy does not recover fully, it could have an adverse impact on oil prices. In December 2008, OPEC, excluding Iraq, cut their total production quota to 24.84 million barrels per day.
