Indonesia 's crude-oil production will continue on its declining path in the absence of any significant new projects, with output projected to decline another 6% next year to 860,000 barrels a day, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

Once the only Asian member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Indonesia has been grappling with declining production from its ageing fields and a lack of any major discoveries in recently years. Fewer exports by Indonesia in the future would further raise Asia 's reliance on West Africa to meet its demand for low-sulfur, or sweet, crude.

"Delays with boosting output at the Banyu Urip field, as well as a lack of other new projects, as baseload production declines, are keeping Indonesia 's production on a downward trend," the IEA said in a monthly oil-market report.

While the government recently trimmed its official output target for this year to 945,000 barrels a day from 970,000, the IEA said, its own estimate is a more conservative 915,000 barrels a day.

The country reached peak production of around 1.6 million barrels a day in 1977 and 1995. Output has fallen steadily to roughly 900,000 barrels a day.

Indonesia opted out of OPEC at the end of 2008, half a decade after it became a net oil importer in 2003.

To boost oil production, upstream regulator BPMigas is pushing companies to pump in more money into existing fields, to extract a greater percentage of oil reserves in the ground by employing enhanced oil-recovery methods. Indonesia 's proven oil reserves have fallen 2.4% a year over the last 10 years, a senior BPMigas official said in June.
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