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DUBAI - Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said today Opec was striving for a "fair and stable" oil price, which would be around US$60 for US crude.
Wary of high fuel stockpiles in the world's biggest fuel consumer the United States, some Opec ministers have raised the possibility of cutting output again in December, deepening a 1.2 million barrel per day reduction agreed last month.
But a modest price rally that has taken US crude to US$61 a barrel has assured some producers they have already done enough.
"It is important for us to obtain the best possible returns from oil through fair and stable prices..." Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said.
Saudi officials have said the kingdom could not shoulder all the responsibility for controlling output and fellow members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) were sharing the task.
"The act of balancing production rates and achieving a suitable price is not easy, but we have succeeded in past years and expect future success," Naimi told a gathering of Saudi ambassadors in the kingdom's capital Riyadh.
The influential Saudi oil minister has said Opec would cut supplies again when the producer group meets on December 14 in Nigeria if recent curbs failed to balance the market and that prices were not a decisive factor.
Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah told Reuters current US crude prices were "very comfortable" and further output cuts would only be needed if prices fell sharply.
"In my personal opinion, if prices maintain these levels, I don't imagine that there is a need for a reduction," he said.
Pressured by high fuel inventories and scepticism about Opec's ability to enforce supply cuts, oil prices have spent most of the past two months trading a narrow range of around US$58-62 a barrel.
Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil was quoted as saying on Wednesday that Opec might need to rein in production further to ease fears of a second-quarter price slump.
- REUTERS
