Indonesia to seek OPEC output cut in Nov if oil below 22 dollars

Indonesia will ask OPEC members at their emergency meeting on November 14 to cut production if oil prices stay below 22 dollars a barrel, AFP reported on Friday.

Rachmat Sudibyo, director general for oil and gas, said members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries had previously agreed that they would automatically cut production if prices stayed below 22 dollars for 10 consecutive days.

"But that didn't happen recently when the oil price fell below that level," he told a press conference.

"Since the price of oil is now below 22 dollars there should be a cut in production."

Sudibyo expressed surprise that oil prices had not risen despite the conflict in Afghanistan. He said there may have been additional supply from non-OPEC members or members might not have been complying with their quotas.

Sudibyo said OPEC might cut output by more than the 500,000 barrels per day mandated under the cartel's price-band mechanism.

OPEC could in theory have cut output automatically by 500,000 barrels from October 8, the 10th day that its basket price had remained below 22 dollars.

But the mechanism has not been triggered as OPEC struggles with the dilemma of how to cut production without being seen to be greedy when leading economies are heading into recession.

Oil prices have fallen by around 20 percent since the September 11 attacks on the United States. (*)