Residents end blockade at Riau oil rigs after Caltex offers jobs

Local residents blocking oil rigs and 37 vehicles of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) and its contractors agreed on Monday to end their protests after the company agreed to provide them with jobs, Riau Pos reported on Tuesday.

Irwan of the local police office at the Tanah Putih, Bengkalis regency said that the villagers agreed to surrender the 37 vehicles after the company promised to provide about 75 of them temporary jobs, each with a daily pay of Rp 40,000.

However, the management of the oil giant said later in the day that it could not accept the deal because it was made under threat and pressure from the residents, who had blocked five oil rigs and seized vehicles of Caltex and its contractors for at least seven days after their demand to work in the company was rejected.

"The management of Caltex consider the deal as not valid because it was made under pressure and threat from the villagers," Caltex communications and media relations manager Poedyo Oetomo said Monday night.

He, however, said that the management understood the villagers' problem and promised to improve assistance to them through its community development program.

Groups of people demanding jobs from Caltex and its contractors had set up blockades in the oil giant's five oil rigs and seized 37 vehicles in the Tanah Putih district, some 20 kilometers from the province's major city of Duri, The protests had caused a cut in the oil giant's crude oil production by about 15,000 barrels to 30,000 barrels per day.

Caltex, which produces about 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, operates 107 oil fields. (*)