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Indonesia to Pull Out of OPEC Due to Dropping Production

Jakarta Post.  Indonesia may be pulling out of OPEC soon. The government has set up a team tasked with reviewing Indonesia’s membership due to the country’s falling crude oil production.

Indonesia is becoming a net oil importer, and hence ineligible for OPEC membership.

The ministry’s Director General for Oil and Gas Iin Arifin Takhyan said Indonesia was a net oil importer for four months of last year. The country’s oil output has fallen by 5 percent annually over the last decade to less than one million barrels per day (bpd).

Reports from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said that oil and gas imports—including both crude oil and oil products—increased sharply by 52.36 percent in 2004.

The increasing imports were due to declining oil production from the country’s aging oil fields and rising domestic demand of up to 7 percent per year.

Indonesia joined OPEC in 1962, two years after Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela established the group.

Comments

Mikhail Capone

Any idea if this was a "long time coming" kind of thing, or is this a surprise for the country?

Mike

Not really a surprise—Indonesian oil production peaked some time ago. But it was just this last year that the country tipped over from being an exporter to an importer. Good example of dynamics of peaking production.

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