World oil prices shed almost $1 today, after comments by the Saudi Arabian oil minister that he was happy with current price levels, ahead of this week's OPEC output meeting. The market was also pulled lower by the strengthening dollar and a gloomy economic outlook contained in OPEC's monthly market report. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, slid 95 cents to $81.26 a barrel. London's Brent North Sea crude for November fell 90 cents to $82.82 a barrel. The oil minister of key OPEC member Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Nuaimi, had said yesterday that he was 'happy' with the current price of oil and saw no reason to change output quotas, as he arrived in Vienna yesterday for an OPEC meeting. 'The price between $70 and $80 a barrel is an ideal price,' he said. Oil prices also fell today as traders took their cue from the strengthening dollar. The euro dipped against the dollar as investors took profits before publication of minutes from the US Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting. A stronger greenback makes dollar-priced crude more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies, and in turn this weighs on prices and tends to dent demand. Meanwhile, OPEC today revised upwards its world oil demand growth estimate for 2010 to 1.3%, but held steady its forecast for next year. 'Despite some turbulence and setbacks, the global economic recovery continues to provide support for oil consumption,' the cartel wrote in its October monthly bulletin. OPEC said it was pencilling in world oil demand growth of 1.13 million barrels a day, or 1.34%, to 85.59 million barrels for the whole of 2010, 'driven by the stronger than expected, stimulus-led economic growth in the first half of the year.' In 2011, oil demand would then increase by a further 1.05 million bpd or 1.2% to 86.64 million bpd, unchanged from the previous forecast, OPEC predicted. The powerful 12-nation OPEC cartel, which pumps about 40% of the world's crude oil, has had an official daily production level of 24.84 million barrels since January 2009.