Riau police to boost personnel to protect Caltex?s oil fields

The police in Riau plans to increase the number of its personnel in the province?s Rokan Hilir regency to cope with growing protests made by local residents against the operation of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia?s oil fields in the area, Suara Karya reported on Wednesday.

The local police chief said that the increase in the number of the personnel was necessary to ensure that the residents? protest would not cause a disruption to the operation of the oil fields.

Actions of a group of youths recently to block the road leading the oil giant?s oil fields and to seize a number of vehicles owned by the field operators could no longer be tolerated, he said.

Caltex resumed oil production activities at the Genting and Perkebunan fields last week after the job-seeking youth agreed to end the blockade, which had been taken place for almost two weeks.

The blockade, which started on June 1, had paralyzed production activities at seven small wells ? five at the Genting oil field and two at the Perkebunan field, according to Caltex spokesman.

Some 20 and 30 job-seeking youth were involved in one of the longest blockades Caltex had experienced. The youth had also been responsible for turning off power supply to the fields and cutting 10-inch operational pipeline.

The blockade ended Thursday after resolution was achieved from a meeting of Caltex personnel, the police and local officials.

Caltex, the country?s largest has become the target of local residents? resentment within the past three years. The company said that disruptions to the company?s oil production facilities had resulted in a loss of 30,000 barrels per day last year. This year the loss in the production due to disruptions has reached about 40,000 bpd.

Caltex is owned by American oil and gas giants Texaco and Chevron (*)