Exxon offers separation program to employees

By Godang Sitompul

ExxonMobil Indonesia (EMOI), a subsidiary of American energy giant ExxonMobil Corp., is offering some of its local staff to resign as the firm?s activities have been reduced in Indonesia.

"ExxonMobil Indonesia plans to offer a voluntary separation program to a very limited number of staff in our Jakarta office. Employees will be treated fairly and in accordance with their contracts and all applicable laws,? EMOI?s VP Erwin Maryoto told Petromindo.com.

?ExxonMobil has invested significantly in exploration in Indonesia since 2008. Unfortunately, the program has not achieved the expected results. We continue to seek additional exploration opportunities in Indonesia,? said.

According to sources, the voluntary separation program was offered to several geological and geophysical (G&G) experts. The firm cited that it does not have any ongoing exploration program at present. The firm has only one exploration block left in Indonesia at present, that is East Natuna block. However, the block remains idle.

?I have just get information from our G&G friends at Exxon that there are 23 geoscience staffers who have been asked to resign in one-month notice. The firm will only retain five geoscience staffers,? the source said.

At present, EMOI has only one operation left in Indonesia: that is the Cepu block which is now production and construction stage.

Last year, the firm announced it had returned three exploration blocks to the government, namely Gunting block in East Java, Surumana block in Central Sulawesi and Mandar block in West Sulawesi. Erwin was then quoted as saying that Mandar blocks were returned to the government because the company had not found oil and gas reserves in the blocks. Meanwhile, the Gunting block was returned due to protest from local communities when the company carried out 2D seismic survey. The firm recently announced that it had also returned the Cendrawasih block to the government.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon