RI wants higher OPEC benchmark price

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia will likely ask the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) during its scheduled meeting later this week to revise upward its crude oil price band to better reflect economic developments of late.

Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Tuesday that the current OPEC price band was no longer in line with the world's economic situation, with the dollar's decline affecting most OPEC members' oil export revenues.

"The price band should be adjusted in line with inflation since 2001 and the dollar's depreciation," Purnomo, who is also OPEC secretary-general, told reporters without elaborating further.

Oil ministers from OPEC members are scheduled to meet on Dec. 10 to discuss a number of issues, including oil production quotas and the price benchmark for next year.

OPEC currently sets the crude oil price range at between US$22 and $28 a barrel. This range has proved to be way below actual global oil prices, which have averaged close to $36 a barrel since the start of the year.

OPEC usually tries to either cut or raise production so as to help keep world oil prices within the benchmark price range.

In midday Asian trade, Crude for January delivery stood at $43.10.

Purnomo has reportedly said that the new benchmark price should be raised to between $28 and $32 a barrel.

OPEC is forecast to earn oil-export revenues of $330 billion this year, up from $245 billion last year, according to PFC Energy in Washington, Bloomberg said, thanks to robust demand from China and the U.S.