Pertamina says oil prices be kept at no less than $20 per barrel

OPEC should take action to keep oil prices at no less than US$20 per barrel, the president director of state oil and gas firm Pertamina said Monday.

?OPEC should intervene if they fall to less than 20 dollars per barrel,? Baihaki Hakim told Petromindo.Com.

Iran?s deputy oil minister Mehdi Mir-Moezi said last week crude prices on the world market could drop to $18 dollar per barrel after the Iraqi war was over, from last week's $25. This was because of oversupply on the world market, the Iranian official said.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government had set world crude prices for the state budget at an average of $22 per barrel.

Baihaki said Monday that Pertamina and the government had anticipated that oil prices, which had skyrocketed before the military invasion to Iraq, would drop after U.S-led troops raided Iraq. (godang)