Megawati instructs police, military to protect oil industry
Friday, October 13 2000 - 06:00 AM WIB
Vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri has instructed the police and military to boost the protection of the country's oil and gas industry amid growing anarchy threatening the operations of several oil and gas companies.
"We have to take all measures to ensure that the oil revenue target set on the state budget can be met," the Vice President was quoted by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources as saying.
Purnomo told Petromindo.Com on Friday the Vice President made the statement in a meeting where he reported the recent cases, where villagers in some parts of the country staged near-anarchy protests to pressure some oil and gas companies to meet their demand.
The cases had also been reported to the national police chief and the Indonesian military commander, Purnomo said.
One of the cases was the blockage by the villagers of Marangkayu, East Kalimantan of the facilities owned by Unocal Indonesia Company, a subsidiary of American energy firm Unocal Corp.
The villagers blockaded the company's canal for two weeks to pressure the company to pay compensation for their farmland allegedly polluted by the company's waste.
Unocal said it was about to stop its operation due to the lack of logistical supplies, whose transportation was hampered due to the blockage.
The blockage was put into an end on Sunday after the local police arrived to forcibly expel the villagers. The police reportedly fired on the villagers as they tried to resist the police's order to move out of the canal.
Separately, last week, villagers in Riau took over and burned the vehicles owned by PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia and occupied its production facilities in several locations to pressure the company to prioritize the locals in its recruitment program. Caltex is jointly owned by American energy firms Chevron and Texaco.
The action was still going on is some areas, the local papers said.
State oil and gas company Pertamina said the action had resulted in the decrease in Caltex's oil output by between 15,000 and 20,000 barrels per day.
All the incidents occurred at the time the country is seeking to boost its oil output amid the increase in oil price. (godang)