Rachmat says Caltex may formally transfer CPP block this week

Oil producer PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) may formally hand over this week Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) oil block in Riau to a joint operating body (JOB) formed by the government and Riau Province, Implementing Body chairman Rachmat Sudibyo told Petromindo.Com on Monday.

CPI?s 20-year contract to operate and manage CPP block expires on August 8.

?The transfer of the block will be signed before August 8 in Jakarta. It may happen this week,? Rachmat said without giving an exact date. President Megawati Sukarnoputri recently appointed Rachmat chief of the Implementing Body which holds the highest authority in the country?s oil sector.

CPP contract in fact expired in August last year but CPI was given one-year extension.

CPP oil block, which part of CPI?s oil concession areas in Riau, currently produces around 40,000 barrels per day. It was 70,000 barrels per day in the past years.

Meanwhile, CPI vice president W. Yudiana said on Monday his company allows its workers to move to JOB and that they were unclear about the workers? plan.

Earlier reports said CPI presently employs at least 200 workers at CPP block. (godang)