Jakarta - Indonesia, OPEC's only member in the Asia-Pacific, is considering quitting the cartel because the country has become a net oil importer, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Tuesday. "Indonesia at this stage is no longer an oil exporter," Yudhoyono said in opening remarks at a conference attended by provincial governors and regency heads.
"That's why, at the cabinet meeting yesterday, we have discussed whether we should continue to stay with OPEC or withdraw our membership temporarily," Yudhoyono said, adding that the country needs to concentrate on increasing its domestic production.
He said the country's crude oil output has continued to drop and was now at 927,000 barrels per day because of declining investment in the oil sector. That figure was down from production of 950,000 barrels per day last year and represented a fall of more than 50 per cent from levels of a decade ago.
He added that ageing oil wells needed to be repaired to boost the country's crude oil output.
Indonesia has debated pulling out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for several years, and in 2005, it considered becoming an observer.
OPEC consists of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
