Road blockade at Medco?s Lica field ends

By Godang Sitompul

Villagers have ended the road blockade leading to the Lica oil and gas field in Rimau block in Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra, operated by PT Medco E&P Indonesia.

Angry villagers in Danau Calak Village set up the road blockade on Wednesday in a protest against the company as its trucks passing through the village had caused village roads to go down particularly during the rainy season.

?Medco has made a commitment to fix the roads,? said Elan Biantoro, Public Relations Chief of the upstream authority SKK Migas to Petromindo.com on Thursday.

He explained that production at the Lica field stands at 700 bpd. Although it?s not huge, SKK Migas considered that any obstacle to oil production must be quickly settled.

?We don?t want it to become a cancer which is difficult to overcome. Especially that Musi Banyuasin is the Indonesian equivalent of ?Texas? in terms of oil,? he said.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak