Security conditions improve, ExxonMobil mulls resuming operations
Friday, May 4 2001 - 08:30 AM WIB
ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia Inc, a subsidiary of American energy giant ExxonMobil Corporation, will soon send a special team to North Aceh to assess the possibility of resuming its gas operation following improving security conditions in the area, according to industry sources.
The special team may be dispatched in the middle of the month, the sources told Petromindo.Com on Friday.
The sources said ExxonMobil had actually formed the so-called "safety team", which regularly went to its gas fields in Lhoksukon to check security conditions there following the company's move to close the fields on March 9.
"But this special team, which ExxonMobil will dispatch in the middle of the month, is different from the so-called safety team in the fact that the former will plan, assess and evaluate how to safely resume operations," the sources said.
The sources admitted security conditions in North Aceh, which has become a hotbed of violence since separatist rebels stepped up their independence campaign after downfall of former President Soeharto in 1998, had improved.
Earlier, a Pertamina official said a special team comprising of representatives from state oil and gas company Pertamina, ExxonMobil and the military had concluded that ExxonMobil could resume the operation of its gas fields by end of May.
"Based on the team's assessment, we are optimistic that ExxonMobil can resume its operation by the end of this month (May)," Pertamina's director for production sharing contract management, Iin Arifin Takhyan was quoted as saying by Bisnis Indonesia daily on Thursday.
But the sources said ExxonMobil has yet to send its special team to determine when to resume the operation.
ExxonMobil suspended its gas operations in Lhoksukon on March 9 on security conditions, forcing nearby PT Arun NGL Co, which relies on the company for its gas supplies, to stop its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and shipment to South Korea and Japan. PT Arun is co-owned by Pertamina, ExxonMobil and the consortium of buyers.
Following the closure of the fields, the government sent in more than 2,000 militarymen to protect the company's gas facilities. (Alex)