Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The global crude oil market is in “good shape” and “everybody likes” the current price, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters as he arrived in Vienna for tomorrow’s OPEC meeting.

‘The market is in a very good shape, very well supplied,’’ he said ahead of the conference, where the group is expected to leave output quotas unchanged. “The price is good for everybody, consumers, producers. Everything is in good shape.”

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 tomorrow. All of the 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted the organization will keep quotas steady.

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.

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

The country has sacrificed market share to meet the target, with exports to the U.S. falling in June to their lowest since 1998, Energy Department data shows.

Feeding the Recovery

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

Ministers will gather for this week’s meeting at the group’s headquarters at 9:30 p.m. because the summit falls during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

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 7, 2009 23:12 EDT