Indonesia to withdraw from OPEC

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) - Indonesia will withdraw from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries at the end of the year, the country's energy minister told foreign journalists Wednesday.

"We are more of an oil consuming country" said Purnomo Yusgiantoro, the energy and mineral resources minister. "If in the future, if our production comes to a status of a net oil exporter then we can always go back to OPEC."

Indonesia is the only southeast Asian country in the 13-nation oil cartel. It joined in 1962, but has had periods when it shifted from being a net exporter to an importer because of declining oil production levels, Yusgiantoro said.