JAKARTA - Indonesia will withdraw from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries as it has become a net oil importer, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Wednesday.
"During the budget planning meeting, the president mentioned that we have to withdraw from OPEC and ... when I get back to the office ... I will sign that we withdraw from OPEC," Yusgiantoro said.
But he said Indonesia, the only Southeast Asian member of the oil cartel, could rejoin OPEC if production increased in line with an ongoing effort to boost capacity.
The decline of Indonesia from a net oil exporter to a net oil importer had prompted the move to leave the group, Yusgiantoro told reporters.
"In the case of Indonesia, if we are pulling out from OPEC, then I think in the future ... if our production comes back again to a level that gives us the status of a net oil exporter, then I think we can go back to OPEC," he said.
Oil production in the archipelago has been in decline since 1995 with yields dropping in well-established fields, the minister said.
The Indonesian government hopes to develop new wells to raise its overall production over the next three years. - AFP/ir
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