Indonesia mulls quitting OPEC
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said his country is considering pulling out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries because it was no longer a net oil exporter.
The country of 235 million is Southeast Asia’s only OPEC member, but it now has to import oil following decades of declining investment due to corruption and a weak legal system. Indonesia produced an average of 860,000 barrels a day of crude oil last month, down from 1.5 million to 1.6 million barrels a day in the mid-1990s.
“Our wells are drying,” Yudhoyono said in a nationally televised speech. The government is considering whether it “should continue to stay with OPEC or withdraw our membership … until we reach a point where we deserve to rejoin that organization,” he said.
Indonesia joined OPEC in 1962 and has paid dues to the 13-member cartel through the end of this year.
