Kuwait City (Platts)--26Apr2010/615 am EDT/1015 GMT

Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said Monday that oil prices in a range between $75 and $85/barrel were an acceptable level at which new projects were economically viable without harming the global economic recovery.

"This level makes most new projects economically viable, and facilitates future investment planning," Shekh Ahmad said in an opening address to the Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference in Kuwait.

"It is also a price [that] will not create hurdles to the world's economic recovery," the minister said.

He reiterated remarks made last week about plans by Kuwait, which holds around 8% of global oil reserves, to expand its crude oil production capacity to 3.5 million by 2015 and 4 million b/d by 2020. He put current spare production capacity at 1 million b/d.

He said Kuwait was currently producing 2.2 million b/d of crude oil and had potential to produce 3.1 million b/d.

A Platts survey of OPEC's production in March put Kuwait's production at 2.27 million b/d in line with its OPEC quota.

Sheikh Ahmed said on Thursday that Kuwait had raised its oil output capacity to 3 million b/d. Previous estimates put capacity at 2.6 million b/d.

The capacity expansion would help meet rising demand for crude oil, Sheikh Ahmed said, noting the importance of Asian oil demand growth, led by China and India, in driving exports from the Middle East in the coming years.

Middle Eastern crude exports to Asia will continue to rise and will account for around 70% of total exports in the next few years, he said.

--Walid Kurdi,walid_kurdi@platts.com