Indonesia?s oil exports fall 16% as output drops

Oil exports from Indonesia, Southeast Asia?s biggest producer, fell 16 percent in January from a year ago as output declined to the lowest in 34 years, bloomberg reported on Saturday.

Shipments dropped to 322,600 barrels a day from 383,000 barrels a day a year ago, according to data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. The country shipped 443,800 barrels of crude oil a day in December. Crude oil imports fell 44 percent to 234,400 barrels a day last month from a year ago.

It imported 276,700 barrels a day in December. Imports fell because state oil company PT Pertamina cut purchases as demand declined after the government raised prices.

The country, the second-smallest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was a net exporter of oil by 33,260 barrels a day in 2005, according to data from the ministry. Indonesia exported an average of 374,633 barrels a day in 2005 and imported an average of 341,383 barrels of oil a day, the ministry said.

The country?s January crude oil output fell 2.2 percent to the lowest in more than 34 years as rains disrupted drilling at fields in Sumatra, Java and Borneo.

Meanwhile, consulting company Oil Movements reported Thursday that OPEC?s shipments in the four weeks to Feb. 25 will rise 0.8 percent compared with the previous four-week period, led by an increase in westbound exports from the Middle East.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to load 25.3 million barrels a day onto tankers in the period, compared with 25.1 million barrels a day in the four weeks ended Jan. 28, the Halifax, England-based company said in a report today. Shipments are up 6.7 percent from a year ago.

?The normal seasonal decline in the early months of the year has not happened,? Roy Mason, the founder of Oil Movements, said in the report.

Oil shipments usually fall at this time of the year as refineries close for routine maintenance. OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world?s oil, last week agreed to keep its official production ceiling for all members except Iraq at 28 million barrels a day, close to a 26-year high. The group will review its output ceiling when it meets on March 8.(*)