KUWAIT CITY -- OPEC's largest oil producing member Saudi Arabia said on Monday that $100 a barrel is a "reasonable" price for oil while its Gulf neighbor Kuwait said the price is "fair" and the market was stable.
"In 1997, I thought $20 was reasonable. In 2006, I though $27 was reasonable," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Kuwait City on the sidelines of a Gulf oil conference.
"Now, it is around $100 ... and I say again 'it is reasonable.'"
Kuwait's Oil Minister Hani Hussein said the "current oil price is fair."
"There is a little bit of over-supply but we think that the market is stable at the moment," he said.
Oil prices rose in Asian trade Monday after Cyprus and its international creditors struck a 10 billion euro bailout deal, averting collapse of the country's banking system.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, added 52 cents to $94.23 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for May delivery increased 62 cents to $108.30 in afternoon trade.
"We are generally happy with the oil prices at the moment ... We think that the prices now reflect the market [situation] in general ... Basically, the market is balanced," the Kuwaiti minister said.
Hussein also said that Kuwait's oil production at present is "a little bit below 3 million barrels per day because there are some maintenance work," adding that after the maintenance is completed soon Kuwait will return to 3 million bpd.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
