Indonesia calls on OPEC to stabilize oil prices below $70/barrel

Indonesia wants OPEC to stabilize the price of oil below $70/barrel, the country's oil minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, said Monday.

 

"We have not yet decided whether to propose an increase in production or maintain [current] quotas," Purnomo said, referring to OPEC's upcoming meeting on September 11 in Vienna, when it will review the current agreement setting output at 25.8 million b/d for the ten members bound by production pacts.

"There is no communication between OPEC ministers yet," he said.

"But it's real that the oil price is fluctuating now at $70/b...up and down," Purnomo added.

Purnomo said oil prices could be stabilized either by an OPEC crude output increase or by reducing the number of factors contributing to the instability, including geopolitics.

"We call on OPEC countries to reduce instability in a bid to stabilize prices," he said.