JAKARTA, 9 May 2006 — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is urging non-OPEC oil producers to help stem the rise in world oil prices, Indonesian Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said yesterday.

Yusgiantoro said it was difficult for OPEC members to step up production and that even the excess capacity of Saudi Arabia, a key OPEC producer, was almost accounted for. “Therefore we hope for the cooperation of non-OPEC countries, especially Russia and Mexico, in production matters. They should participate, to influence the psychology of supply and demand,” the minister said. He said that the 11-member oil organization was planning to meet again in Caracas on June 1 to discuss what further steps the group could take.

Last week, OPEC’s daily “basket” price, based on crude prices from member countries, hit a historic high of $68.4 (54.3 euros) per barrel. Indonesia is Asia’s only OPEC member but its oil output has fallen in recent years to about one million barrels per day.

Meanwhile, crude-oil prices dropped below $69 a barrel yesterday.

Oil futures have been on a sharp down-swing since last week, when the US government showed an increase in US refining and gasoline supplies. Still, concerns about Iran, unrest in Nigeria, violence in Iraq and rising resource nationalism in South America underpin oil prices. Light, sweet crude for June delivery lost $1.49 to $68.70 a barrel in late morning trading yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had lost about $4 last week.

Ed Silliere, vice president of risk management at Energy Merchant LLC in New York, said he expects the pullback in oil futures to lower pump prices, driving them down to about $2.60 to $2.70 in the coming weeks.

The average US price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline was $2.902 yesterday, down half a cent from a day earlier, according to AAA’s daily fuel gauge report.

“It’s good news for Average Joe this week,” Flynn said. “Refiners seemed to be getting things turned around last week ... In the near term, prices are going down.”

June Brent crude futures on London’s ICE Futures shed $1.28 to $69.67 a barrel.

Gasoline futures fell nearly 5 cents to $1.992 a gallon, while heating oil prices slipped more than 2 cents to $1.929 a gallon. Natural gas prices lost 16.5 cents to $6.61 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Venezuela’s oil minister added to potential concerns about oil supplies, saying yesterday that OPEC is not likely to decide on a production increase at its June 1 meeting in Venezuela because the group has little additional capacity it can summon.

“There is not much OPEC can do,” said Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez in a television interview in Caracas.