OPEC President Says Oil's `Ideal' Price Is $70-$90

By Ahmed Rouaba

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The ``ideal'' price for crude oil is between $70 and $90 a barrel, OPEC President and Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said today.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries hasn't decided the size of an output cut it may opt for at a meeting in Vienna next month, Khelil told reporters during a visit to Algeria's Hassi Rmel gas fields. OPEC announced last week it will hold an extraordinary meeting on Nov. 18 to review the crude market.

``No-one can say how much, the decision is made in the meeting,'' said Khelil. The global financial crisis is likely to persist until 2010 in Europe and the U.S., Khelil said.

Oil futures in New York have fallen 50 percent from their July record of $147.27 and traded at $73.88 today.

Algeria, currently producing 1.4 million barrels of crude a day, has already earned $80 billion in oil and gas revenue this year, Khelil said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ahmed Rouaba in Algiers through the newsroom in London at rouaba@hotmail.com