Another OPEC Member Announces Increased Production Plans For 2017

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday October 26, 2016

Yet another country seemingly indifferent to the tone and intent of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries'  (OPEC) deal to cut oil output is Indonesia, whose state-owned Pertamina is targeting a 42 percent increase in crude production and a 17 percent increase in gas production in 2017, according to a company spokeswoman.

Wianda Pusponegoro told media on Tuesday that Pertamina is targeting an average crude oil production of 438,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2017, up from a 308,000 bpd target this year.

Gas output in 2017 is targeted at 2.278 billion standard cubic feet per day, compared to a targeted 1.951 billion standard cubic feet per day this year.

Pertamina and Rosneft closed a deal earlier this month for the construction of a refinery in Indonesia, which may also see Pertamina buying into Russian production projects (reportedly including a 20 percent stake in the Northern Chayvo field off Russia's Pacific coast, as well as 37.5 percent in the Yuzhno-Russkoye field in Western Siberia).

Pertamina is also investigating the feasibility of producing assets in Iran and Iraq.

OilPrice.com notes that although it is a small member of OPEC, Indonesia "has major ambitions in oil production as its local demand is far above production," with the country in total averaging about 850,000 bpd or 911,000 bpd, depending on sources.

Indonesia now joins Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, and Libya in the growing list of OPEC members who have either directly or indirectly shown no interest in following the cartel's loose objective of limiting production to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million bpd, compared with record output of 33.6 million bpd in September.

Iraq voiced its opposition to the deal in no uncertain terms earlier this week, with Falah al-Amiri, head of Iraqi state oil marketer SOMO, stating "We have passed 4.7 million barrels a day [and] we are not going back: it's a question of sovereignty."

Concurrent to the growing opposition is the growing sentiment that OPEC is irrelevant as a market influence; indeed, the cartel and its proposed deal wasn't mentioned once by Marc Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, when he told CNBC earlier this week that economic growth in Asia will boost prices overall and cause oil to easily test $70 a barrel in the near future.