Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- 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 said.

“The price is good for everybody, consumers, producers,” al-Naimi said as he arrived in Vienna for tomorrow’s Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting, where most minister and analysts expect the group to leave output quotas unchanged. “The market is very well supplied.”

Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi, arriving at his first OPEC meeting, said the oil markets is “getting better than before,” even while stockpiles remain “high.” OPEC President and Angolan Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said today prices are in a “satisfactory range.”

Oil for October delivery rose as much as 5.5 percent, the most in a more than a month, to $71.79 on the New York Mercantile Exchange today as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said demand in the U.S. and Europe is improving. The bank forecasts crude will reach $85 this year. All of 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted OPEC will keep its daily output target unchanged at 24.845 million barrels at tomorrow’s meeting.

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.

Oil Above $70

Crude oil advanced today after the dollar index declined to an 11-month low, spurring demand for commodities as an alternative investment. Rising equity markets also helped crude, signaling economic recovery is on track.

“The dollar has had an impact,” said Amrita Sen, a London-based analyst at Barclays Capital, by phone. “But it’s more a risk-appetite play. There’s increasing optimism about the economy overall.”

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.

Al-Naimi said today the country is currently producing about 8 million barrels a day, adding the country is complying with OPEC cuts “as best we can.”

Sacrificing Market Share

The country has sacrificed market share to meet the target, ceding their status as the world’s biggest exporter of crude and refined products to Russia for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Saudi Arabian exports to the U.S. fell in June to their lowest since 1998, Energy Department data shows.

Despite these efforts the global market remains “a little bit” oversupplied, Al-Naimi said.

Stockpiles in the world’s most advanced economies equal about 62 days of consumption, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. OPEC ministers have said they want to lower stockpiles to between 52 and 54 days of demand.

OPEC President Botelho de Vasconcelos said last week that cutting shipments beyond the record amounts announced last year would endanger the global economic recovery. Ministers and officials from Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Iran and Iraq have made similar remarks in the past three weeks, signaling their support for existing quotas.

After Dark

Ministers will gather for this week’s meeting at the group’s headquarters at 9:30 p.m. tomorrow because the summit falls during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The group’s Ministerial Monitoring Committee will meet tonight in Vienna and may recommend a course of action for the full conference of ministers tomorrow.

The group’s 12 members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. The group is scheduled to meet again in late December in Luanda.

To contact the reporters on this story: Maher Chmaytelli in Vienna at mchmaytelli@bloomberg.net; Grant Smith in Vienna at gsmith52@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 8, 2009 15:25 EDT