"We hope that the world crude prices which fluctuate at a high level return to the normal level and go down in accordance with our estimate at a range of US$80 per barrel," the minister said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo hopes that the world crude price will return to a stable level after fluctuating within a high range over the past two years.

"We hope that the world crude prices which fluctuate at a high level return to the normal level and go down in accordance with our estimate at a range of US$80 per barrel," the minister said here on Wednesday.

The minister hoped the world crude price would return to the normal level and then go down, after the Brent North Sea oil price for April delivery closed up US$1.53 to US$107.27 per barrel on Tuesday, the highest one since late 2008, due to political crisis in Libya.

"We hope prices would return to the stable position and then go down," he said.

Acting chief of Fiscal Policy Affairs of the Finance Ministry Bambang Brodjonegoro said meanwhile that so far no changes had been made in the price assumption set at the state budget for 2011, even if the price of oil in the world market had spiraled beyond expectations.

"The high price might belong to only one type of oil, namely Brent North Sea oil, while that of others such as West Texas is still not as high as that of Brent North," he said.

He said that the government would continue to monitor the world oil price developments and would still use its state budget assumption price which was set at an average of US$80 per barrel.

In the meantime, BKF Askolani, head of the state budget policy center, said it was difficult to predict crude oil prices in the near future.

"Our experience so far is that the fluctuation of the world oil prices is rather sensitive to the influence of the geopolitical conditions such as wars and other things," he said.

The waves of protests that caused the downfall of the authoritarian leaders in Tunisia and Egypt have now hit the strategic oil producer in the Middle East and North Africa, Libya.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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