Indonesia may quit OPEC

Indonesia is still studying the proposal to withdraw its membership from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is said to be no longer effective in controlling the world's oil prices and in defending the interest of its members.

Rachmat Sudibyo, the chairman of BP Migas, the regulator in oil and gas upstream activities, said in Jakarta on Friday that the government was still calculating the advantages and disadvantages if Indonesia abandoned its membership in OPEC.

"We have to realize if quitting OPEC will endanger Indonesian position as an oil producer," he said. "We have also to study the prospect of the future oil production although at present Indonesia has been categorized as a net oil importer due to its declining oil production," he added.

Meanwhile a noted oil and gas analyst Umar Said that maintaining the membership in OPEC was no longer relevant due to the decline of the power of the organization in controlling the oil prices.

He said with the control of the United States over Iraq, one of the world's major oil producers, OPEC had effectively become toothless in defending the interest of its members.

"Besides such a problem, to pay annual fee of 1.5 million euros is too costly for Indonesia," he was quoted as saying by Koran Tempo daily. "Therefore any decision which will pave the way for the withdrawal of Indonesia from OPEC should be supported," he said. (maya)