Increase in oil supply quota 'good for RI'
JAKARTA (JP): Former secretary-general for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Subroto called on Indonesia yesterday to put its weight behind Saudi Arabia's call for an increase in the oil supply quota.
"If the quota is raised, Indonesia will certainly have its quota raised as well. This would provide a chance for the country to get more oil revenue," Subroto said.
Minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana, as head of the Indonesian delegation for the upcoming OPEC meeting in Jakarta, has not yet made any statement on Indonesia's stance over the Saudi call to increase oil supply to anticipate world demand.
OPEC's oil ministers will hold their biannual meeting starting Nov. 26 at the newly built Dharmawangsa Hotel.
The production quota of the 11 OPEC member countries is 25.03 million barrels per day (bpd).
The Saudi delegation to OPEC's Economic Commission Board (ECB) predicted last week that world demand for oil would rise to 75.8 million bpd next year, from 73.48 million bpd this year.
The Saudi delegation projected that non-OPEC supplies would top 48.6 million bpd next year, up from 47.35 million bpd this year.
The delegation called on OPEC members to raise their oil supply quota to fill any remaining demand left unsupplied by non- OPEC countries.
However, Reuters said most of the other member states at the ECB discussion disputed the Saudi projections.
They predicted world demand for oil would increase 1.87 million bpd to 75.35 million bpd next year, but non-OPEC countries would increase production by 1.86 million bpd.
They said demand for oil from OPEC members would only increase 10,000 bpd.
OPEC's president Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attaiyah, who is also Qatar's oil minister, earlier said he did not expect extraordinary things to happen during the Jakarta meeting since the oil supply quota would remain unchanged.
Subroto called on OPEC yesterday to increase the oil supply quota to prevent non-OPEC members from taking advantage of the growth in world demand.
OPEC's governor for Indonesia Purnomo Yusgiantoro, also an expert advisor to Sudjana, refused to reveal yesterday Indonesia's stance on the oil supply quota discussion.
"The quota issue will be decided during the meeting," he said.
But Purnomo estimated that world demand for oil would increase only by 1.75 million bpd to 75.23 million bpd next year, mainly because of the growth in demand in developing countries such as China.
"Developing countries will account for one million bpd of next year's growth," he said.
Purnomo said the meeting would be attended by 105 delegates from Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Algeria, Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The oil ministers of the 11 countries will hold a bilateral meeting on Nov. 28 and will be received by President Soeharto on Dec. 1.
He said the conference would have a routine agenda and would discuss administration and finance, restructuring of the OPEC organization, oil price development and monitoring of oil production of member countries.
The meeting will also elect OPEC's next secretary-general for a three-year term. The present secretary-general is Rilwanu Lukman from Nigeria. (jsk)