Indonesian President On Oil Market: If We Can't Increase Production, We Must Decrease Consumption  

Indonesia used to be an oil exporter. Now it is an importer and will leave OPEC when its membership expires later in the year.

It seems this sort of experience makes people think twice about oil depletion and peak oil, judging by this call from the Indonesian president in The Australian.

INDONESIA issued an impassioned plea today for oil powers and consumer nations to stop the blame game over oil prices. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for a joint effort to calm the raging market.

Faced with opinion polls showing rising domestic fuel costs are hurting his chances for re-election next year, the leader of Asia's only OPEC member said either oil production must increase or consumption must fall.

“This is time for producer countries, not only OPEC and Saudi Arabia but also Russia and Venezuela, to sit together with consumer nations, with the US, China, India, and not to blame each other,” Mr Yudhoyono said in a speech carried on ElShinta radio. “They need to make calculations about to what extent they can step up their production. If it's not possible they have to commit to reduce oil consumption.”

His comments came as world oil traded near record levels in Asia after OPEC's president talked of uncertainty surrounding future investment in energy facilities to boost crude output.