Students protest govt decision to give Pertamina majority stake in CPP

Two Jakarta-based associations of students originating from Riau province have opposed the government's plan to give state owned oil and gas Pertamina a majority stake in a joint venture that will runs the Coastal Plains Pekanbaru (CPP) oil block, Riau Pos reported on Thursday.

The two associations Amperra and Hipemari said in a joint statement that the government's decision to give Pertamina majority stake in CPP was against the aspiration of the Riau people.

''If the central government does not pay attention to the aspiration of the local people, it means that it encourages demands towards disintegration," the associations said referring to the arising demand from the local people to establish Riau as an independent state.

The two student associations also criticized Pertamina for not accepting the demand of the Riau administration to have a majority stake in the planned joint venture that will operate the CPP oil block.

Minister of Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that recently that the government has decided to give Pertamina a majority stake in the planned joint venture to operate the CPP oil block after negotiations between the state oil and gas company and the Riau administration failed to settle their differences over their ownership in the joint venture.

Both Pertamina and the Riau authority demanded a majority stake in the venture.

The government agreed early this year to allow the Riau province to take over the operation of the CPP oil block after the existing contract, which is held by PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, ends in August next year. But the ministry of energy and mineral resource will not issue its final approval until the province finds its partners in managing the oil block. (*)