Pertamina says Indonesia should quit OPEC by 2005/06
Monday, June 11 2001 - 02:45 PM WIB
Indonesia, the only Asian member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), should be ready to quit the oil cartel in four to five years as its oil exports run dry, the president of state oil company Pertamina was quoted by Reuters as saying Monday.
"Right now, based on the last projection by 2005/2006 we are no longer becoming a (net) oil exporter," Pertamina President Baihaki Hakim told the Asia Oil and Gas Conference.
"So, naturally we should not be a member of OPEC."
He added that even now Indonesia's OPEC membership was more for political than economic reasons.
Indonesia produced 1.23 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in May, unchanged from April, and below its OPEC quota of 1.255 million bpd. Law and order problems and disputes over land and labor rights have hit Indonesia's oil and gas sector since the downfall the autocratic former President Suharto three years ago.
Baihaki said that Indonesia's future lay with gas, not oil. (*)