Indonesia Can't Keep Up the Pace

Indonesia, Opec's second-smallest member and a net importer of fuels, wants the group to keep oil production steady at its meeting next week and hopes prices will fall, the country's oil minister said yesterday.

"The current oil price is too high and Indonesia wants prices lower," Indonesia Mines and Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters.

Iran's Opec governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said on Saturday the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was unlikely to change production at its meeting on on September 11 in Vienna due to high prices, and was likely to continue supplying the market more than demand.

The 11-member group is producing near its full capacity, with only Saudi Arabia holding back spare volumes.

US oil prices edged up to $69.25 a barrel yesterday after falling below $70 last week as dealers expected several weeks of inaction on Iran's nuclear row with the West.

Meanwhile, Indonesian crude oil production fell again in August, extending successive drops to the lowest level in more than three decades, an official said yesterday.