Jakarta – Villagers demanding road improvementshave ended a blockade of an oil field owned by US company PT Caltex in Riau after police mediated in the dispute, AP reported. The villagers began their blockade of the Pinang field on Monday, Caltex spokesman Harry Bustaman said on Friday.

They dispersed Thursday after police arranged negotiations between the company and the protesters, he said. Caltex did not agree to the villagers' demands that the company pay for road improvements, Harry added.

He said Caltex lost 5,400 barrels of crude oil production due to the blockade – a small amount compared to its daily average production in Riau of 630,000 barrels a day. Caltex, a unit of US-based Chevron Texaco Corp. (CVX), is Indonesia's largest crude oil producer.

Villagers, who complain that they see few benefits from the extraction of natural resources in their area, frequently disrupt Caltex's production in Riau.

New decentralization laws have granted provincial governments greater control over revenues from natural resources. But critics say much of this money is lost to corruption, leaving little to improve villagers' lives.