Indonesia is "studying" a plan to quit its membership of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as the Southeast Asian nation consumes more oil than it produces, Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.

The government may leave the organization next year at the earliest because it has already paid membership fee for 2008, Purnomo told reporters in Jakarta today.

Indonesia is the only OPEC member from Southeast Asia. The region's biggest economy imports about one-third of its oil product needs because it lack adequate refining capacity and faces falling oil output. The government has lowered its oil sales estimate for 2008 to 927,000 barrels a day from 950,000 barrels a day.