Having just reactivated its OPEC membership ahead of the meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, Indonesia is pulling back again, citing best national interest of the country.
To remind, OPEC convened a meeting in Vienna yesterday, where its members agreed to cut the daily oil production to 32.5 million barrels a day to stabilize oil prices which have been down since mid 2014. This is a cut of 1.2 million barrels per day.
Indonesia’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan was attending the meeting of the OPEC Conference for the first time.
However, following the meeting the Indonesian Energy Ministry said it would suspend its OPEC membership once again.
“Indonesia decided to freeze temporarily membership in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)” the ministry said.
Energy minister said the decision was made after Indonesia was asked at the OPEC meeting to to cut about 5 percent of its production, or about 37 thousand barrels per day.
He said the Indonesia could only accept a cut of five thousand barrels a day, adding that cutting the production capacity would not benefit the country, which is a net importer of crude oil, especially now when the prices are expected to rise.
By freezing the membership, Indonesia has now suspended membership in OPEC for the second time. According to the ministry, proven oil reserves in Indonesia are somewhere around 3.23 billion barrels.
Next ordinary meeting of OPEC will convene in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday, May 25, 2017.
Offshore Energy Today Staff