Asia-Pacific

Indonesia's oil supply not affected by unrest

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-02 14:38

JAKARTA - A senior official at Indonesia's Mineral and Energy ministry assured that the country's oil supply would be less affected by the ongoing unrests in several major oil- producing countries in the Middle East, local media reported here on Wednesday

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The ministry's director general for oil and gas, Evita Herawati Legowo, said most of the country's oil imports did not come from Middle Eastern countries but from Asian countries, so the unrest was unlikely to have a significant impact on the country's oil supply.

"Our fuel imports from the Middle East only represent around 7 percent of our total fuel imports, while for crude oil the region only supplies about 12 percent of the total imports," she said on Tuesday.

However, she said the unrest, particularly in Africa's third largest oil producer Libya, was a bit worrisome because the country had continuously cranked up global oil prices in the past several months.

"In my opinion, intensifying riots in Libya may pose a more fearful threat to global oil prices than other countries. We hope that the conditions there will calm down and problems are solved as soon as possible," Evita said.

State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina's marketing director Djaelani Sutomo said earlier that Indonesia imported most of its oil from Saudi Arabia and Singapore and that to date there were no supply disturbances.

In case the situation in the Middle East gets worse and riots spread to other oil-producing countries, Djaelani said Indonesia had made an agreement with Malaysia and Vietnam to support one other if oil shortfalls occurred.

"If problems get worse we're committed to having each other's back. If one of us has more oil that country will help the one having difficulties finding oil," he was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.

Indonesia, a former member of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries, is one of the largest oil producers in Asia. But, the country still imports oil in order to meet the high domestic demand.