Devon, workers negotiations deadlocked

Papua workers of Devon Energy and the management of the US energy company and state oil and gas firm Pertamina have failed to reach an agreement on the workers? demand for ?transitional? compensation, Pertamina?s spokesman H.L. Harijanto said on Thursday.

?Negotiations have faced a deadlock. There seems to be unbridgeable differences between the two sides,? Harijanto told Petromindo.com and Neraca daily.

Harijanto said the workers and executives of Devon and Pertamina had met several times in Jakarta trying to end their dispute, to no avail.

He said however the workers had got back to work at Devon-operated oil block in Salawati, Papua.

Some 200 workers at the Salawati block went on strike on Apr. 25, but two weeks later they agreed to return to work.

The labor strike caused Pertamina?s Kasim refinery, also in Papua, stop its activities. The facility depends entirely on Salawati?s crude supply.

The workers? move was in protest of Devon?s refusal to pay them ?transitional? compensation.

Devon is in the process of transferring to PetroChina its interests in Salawati Block and Kepala Burung Block, also in Papua. Both blocks currently produce some 10,000 barrels per day of crude.

Meanwhile, Harijanto said several of the protesting workers had planned to meet on Thursday with officials of the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration. (Godang)