Saudi oil minister: Crude market in 'good shape'

VIENNA: 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 today'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 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have said the group should keep its production target unchanged at 24.845 million barrels a day when it meets. All of the 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted the organization would keep quotas steady.