London (Platts)--22Oct2009/622 am EDT/1022 GMT

OPEC is ready to raise crude production at its December 22 meeting in Angola if market conditions warrant such action, the oil producer group's secretary general, Abdalla el-Badri, said Thursday.

"If these prices [around $75-$80/barrel] will continue, if we see stocks going back to normal levels of the five-year average, if we see that there is real economic growth, then I am sure that our members will take a decision to increase production," Badri told reporters in London.

Badri said, however, that stock cover would have to drop from the current 60 days. He did not specify a level, but OPEC has tended to be more comfortable when stock cover is around the 52-day level.

Badri described current prices as "reasonable," but pointed out that the year-to-date average for OPEC's crude basket was just $57/b.

"We have not seen $80/b," he said.

OPEC would like to see an average of $65/b for the basket but this implies oil prices would have to climb to $100/b, he said, adding that this "is not possible."

But, at the same time, he added, "I am not happy with $57/b."

OPEC has already rubber-stamped three times this year its late-2008 agreement to remove 4.2 million b/d of supply from the market.

Several top officials, including Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi, have said in recent weeks that they see no reason to change OPEC's current 24.845 million b/d output target at the December meeting.

--Kate Dourian, kate_dourian@platts.com