Suherdjoko and ID Nugroho, Bojonegoro – Protests over the Cepu oil block continued in Central Java on Monday, with 250 residents demanding to be involved in the project while other protesters rejected ExxonMobil Corp.'s involvement in the oil block's operation.
The residents, who called themselves the Coalition of Banyuurip Jambaran Community, staged a protest at the oil block's planned exploration site in Banyuurip, Mojodelik village in Ngasem district, Bojonegoro regency.
The protesters, who had greeted positively last week's signing of a joint operating agreement on the oil block, demanded to be involved in the project. They said they had been left out during negotiations on the oil block and demanded a 2 percent share of its profits.
The residents also demanded the oil block's operators build infrastructure, including roads, community health centers and schools, while involving the residents in community development programs.
Kustini, a Berabuhan villager in Ngasem district, wanted the oil block's operators to provide free education for children all the way to university. "I also want them to provide health care and suitable employment for our residents," he said.
State oil and gas firm PT Pertamina and US oil giant ExxonMobil announced last week they had finally reached an agreement to jointly operate the Cepu oil block.
Under the agreement, Pertamina and ExxonMobil will jointly form and operate the Cepu Organization, which will run the oil and gas rich block under a 30-year production-sharing contract with the government.
While Bojonegoro and Blora residents were in full support of the oil block, 50 protesters from the Islamic Youth Struggle Committee were not.
On Sunday, the group, from Surakarta, was blocked by the police on its way to stage a protest at the Cepu oil block. The police told the protesters they had not secured the proper documents for the protest march. On Monday, they went on with the protest.
"Our reason for protesting is that ExxonMobil is a US colonialist. We've been ruled by the Dutch. Freeport and Newmont are our foreign rulers, too. So we reject another colonialist in the Cepu Block," the protest coordinator Khofid Syaifulah told The Jakarta Post Monday.
Central Java Governor Mardiyanto regretted the protests. "Such actions should not be held to allow the Cepu oil block to safely operate," he said in Semarang. He said the hopes of many lay with the oil block, and that once it was operational people would feel the benefits.
Cepu oil block, which straddles the border of East Java and Central Java, is estimated to have about 500 million barrels in oil reserves and is the country's biggest untapped oil field.
It is expected to start producing crude oil in 2008, with an estimated daily output of 165,000 barrels per day, or 20 percent of the country's total daily output.