Saudi Arabia is confident that oil will keep rising to eventually hit $75 a barrel, but acknowledged it would not be any time soon as a weak world economy keeps a lid on demand. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said the price of oil would “eventually” climb to $75 a barrel when demand picks up. “We'll get there eventually,” Al-Naimi told reporters in Rome on Saturday where he will attend meetings with energy ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations. “The trick is keeping it between $70 and $80. It will be achieved as demand rises and the fundamentals are better than they are now.” To reach that goal, Al-Naimi urged OPEC members to “stay the course” at their meeting in Vienna on May 28. The group is expected to stick to its current production targets, but stress the need for full compliance with them, a senior Gulf source has previously said. Saudi Arabia is the biggest and most influential member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40 percent of the world's oil. He added that even though Saudi Arabia has opened new production, global markets don't need the product. “The problem is the market. Demand is only in one place, in Asia, that's all,” Al-Naimi was quoted as saying by Platt's oil agency. Al-Naimi said oil should keep at about $75 a barrel “because that is what is desired for the world economy.” Al-Naimi said last month that helping to keep oil prices at $50 a barrel was his country's contribution to the world economy, which is fighting the worst recession in six decades. Since he made those comments in Tokyo on April 25, crude prices have climbed more than 20 percent to above $60 a barrel.
