Saudi Arabia Will Adapt To Market Dynamics -Oil Minister

Saudi Arabia 's oil minister said Monday that the kingdom will adapt to market dynamics and that he is happy with current oil prices.

"We will wait until they (OPEC secretariat) come up with a proposal... This whole thing is dynamic and we respond to dynamism. If the changes happen we will change with them," Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Riyadh .

"Whatever the market determines we accept it...the market determines the price," he said.

He declined to specify the country's preferred price range or whether there is a need for more oil in the market.

In October, Naimi said he didn't expect a decline in global oil demand or a drop in the kingdom's output despite current global economic conditions.

The minister said Monday crude markets are currently balanced, but that it was too early to comment on what action the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries might take when it meets in Vienna in December.

The Arab world's biggest economy pledged to raise output to as much as 10 million barrels a day after an OPEC meeting broke up in June without a decision on how to guide crude oil production.

OPEC at the meeting splintered into two camps: Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia that advocated for a 1.5-million-barrel-a-day increase to meet demand in the market after the loss of oil supplies from Libya , and other nations that opposed the move because of an uncertain outlook for the global economy.

Naimi then declared it "one of the worst meetings we ever had."

However, he declined to comment on whether OPEC will reach an agreement at its meeting next month but said the last meeting "was something else."

OPEC's secretary general, Abdalla Salem El-Badri, told reporters in Riyadh Sunday that the meeting in December will be "comfortable and friendly" and should see no friction or arguments.

OPEC sources told Dow Jones Newswires that there are likely to be no serious discussions about the organization's official quota system at the December gathering. instead, some key OPEC figures are beginning to focus on the scheduled June 2012 meeting as the next time OPEC will debate whether output allocations need to change.