Indonesia officially pulls out of OPEC

Indonesia has officially left the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the cartel announced Wednesday after a meeting in Vienna.

"The conference regretfully accepted the wish of Indonesia to suspend its full membership in the organisation and recorded its hope the country would be in a position to rejoin the organisation in the not too distant future," OPEC said in a statement.

The Indonesian government announced in late May that it intended to withdraw from the oil exporters' cartel as it had become a net oil importer.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said however that Indonesia could rejoin if production increased in line with an ongoing effort to boost capacity after years of declining investment.

"If our production comes back again to a level that gives us the status of a net oil exporter then I think we can go back to OPEC," he said. (*)