Saudi, Libya see oil eventually hitting $75/bbl

By Svetlana Kovalyova and Rania El Gamal

ROME, May 23 (Reuters) - Oil prices will continue rising to eventually hit $75 a barrel, though that may take time, top oil officials from Saudi Arabia and Libya said on Saturday.

"It will be reached, but not very soon, but the market is improving," Libya's Shokri Ghanem told Reuters in Rome on the eve of a meeting of the Group of Eight energy ministers.

"Hopefully they (prices) are getting better, higher," he said.

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi also said oil prices would "eventually" hit $75 -- the level producers say is needed to encourage investment in new production over the long term -- but cited weak demand as a problem.

"The problem is the market. Demand is only in one place, in Asia, that's all," Naimi was quoted as saying by Platt's oil agency.

He also urged OPEC to "stay the course" when it meets on May 28. The group is expected to stick to its current targets, but stress the need for full compliance with them, a senior Gulf source has previously said.

Oil CLc1 rallied to a six-month high of more than $60 a barrel this week, almost double last December's low and well above the $50 level top exporter Saudi Arabia has said it could live with to help nurse the world economy back to growth.

Ghanem said it was too early to say what OPEC would decide at the Vienna meeting, adding that compliance to quotas by OPEC members was good.