Villagers block access road to Caltex oil wells

Hundreds of residents in Bonai village, Kuntodarussalam district, Rokan Hulu regency blocked the access road leading to Caltex Pacific Indonesia?s oil wells in the district on Tuesday after the company refused to asphalt the 20-kilometer road passing through the village, Riau Post reported on Wednesday.

Community leaders in the village said that Caltex promised late last year to asphalt the road but later refused to meet the promise. A number of heavy equipment which have been operated to carry out the job have even been pulled out for unknown reasons, they said.

CPI?s public relations coordinator Jeanny L Simanjuntak said that the road blockade had caused a halt in production activities in the nearby wells, which have a production capacity of about 3,000 barrels per day. If the rod blockade continued, the impact on the production in the wells would be severer, she added.

She said that at least 18 heavy equipment and a number of vehicles were still seized by the villagers.

Jeanny acknowledged that the company agreed last year to meet the villagers? demand to asphalt the road but it later cancelled the plan because if the road was asphalted, it would be easily damaged. (*)