Indonesia may shave off oil output under deal with OPEC

MOSCOW, Aug 4 (PRIME) -- Indonesia is ready for a slight cut of oil production and is discussing it with OPEC, Indonesian ambassador Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi told PRIME on Friday.

OPEC states agreed to reduce production by 1.2 million barrels daily to 32.5 million barrels in November 2016. In December 2016, 11 non-OPEC countries agreed to cut their combined output by 558,000 barrels. The agreement was concluded for January–June and prolonged for nine more months in May.

Also in 2016, Indonesia suspended its participation in OPEC over disagreement with the deal and is now negating restoration of the participation.

“We were actually asked to cut the oil production, but due to the mentioned reasons we are only ready for a slight reduction, nothing serious. We are in active negotiations on that (with OPEC). We don’t know where it will lead us to,” Supriyadi said.

He added that the country is unique in the way that it imports significantly more oil than it produces.

But Jakarta is interested in stable oil prices. “It is necessary to maintain state spending and to plan the budget. So, we are interested in stability of prices,” he said, but declined to say refusing what price is acceptable for Indonesia.

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