Soaring oil prices gives Rp 5.5t in additional income to the government

The government projected on Tuesday that income from oil and gas exports would contribute an additional income of Rp 5.5 trillion to the government because of the soaring crude oil prices in the last three months in the international market.

Rizal Ramli, an expert staff to President Abdurrahman Wahid, said average selling prices of Indonesia's crude continued to increase since end of March to $24.05 per barrel in April and $27.65 per barrel in May. The average selling price of Indonesia's crude in June is projected to reach $27.65 per barrel.

"The increase in the income side would be very helpful for the government to achieve targets set in the 2000 budget," Rizal said, after reading results of the weekly economic ministers meeting.

Rizal also said that the President welcomed the decision taken by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in which Indonesia is a member, in its latest meeting in Vienna on June 21 that decided to supply an additional 708,000 barrels of crude oil per day to a total of 25.4 million barrels per day into the international market.

Based on that OPEC's decision, Indonesia's production quota increases by 37,000 barrels of crude per day to 1.317 million barrels per day.

To meet the quota, the President instructed the mines and energy minister and the finance minister to consider giving incentives to oil companies that are willing to explore oil in "marginal" areas.

The meeting of economic ministers and advisors to the President projected that crude oil prices would stay over $30 a barrel over near future because of the low level of crude inventory in developed countries. (*)