Caltex prefers peaceful response to protesters

Oil producer Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) will never give strong reaction to locals who resort to violence to air their demand, its president director Humayun Bosha told Petromindo.Com Tuesday.

?We do not want to put at risk the safety of our workers and the continuity of our production activities,? Humayun said on the sidelines of a seminar in Jakarta.

Humayun was commenting on recent demonstration held by people residing near its Bekasap operations in Rokan Hilir, Riau province.

Hundreds of people on February 17 blockaded CPI?s gas processing facility in Bekasap for four days, accusing it of causing damages to nearby roads. They demanded CPI to repair a 40-kilometer road.

The company agreed to repair the road while alleging that overloading logging trucks and palm oil trucks had caused damages to area roads. Company executives asked locals to ban the trucks from passing the road after being repaired.

The villagers? protest caused CPI?s workers stop doing their activities, costing it some 1,800 barrels per day and seven million standard cubic feet per day of gas in production opportunity.

CPI, Indonesia?s largest onshore oil producer, is wholly owned by US oil giant ChevronTexaco. It produces some 50 percent of Indonesia?s total crude production. (godang)