AMMAN, 15 May 2006 — Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Naimi predicted yesterday that the world demand for crude oil could reach 100 million barrels per day by the year 2015. He also predicted that oil prices would remain firm in the coming months and said that Saudi Arabia planned to raise its oil production capacity to 12.5 million from the current 11 million barrels per day. Naimi made the comments in remarks to the 8th Arab Energy Conference which opened in the Jordanian capital yesterday. “The traditional economic approach in reading the future leads us to believe that the world demand for oil could reach 100 million barrels per day by the year 2015,” he said in a speech to the meeting.