TNI asked to guard Aceh's oil and gas operations
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Mines and Energy Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the military to guard oil and gas operations in the troubled province of Aceh amid growing tension caused by separatist activity in the area.
"I have asked the Indonesian military (TNI) chief to take care of the facilities and the safety of the workers of the oil and gas companies," Bambang said on Friday.
Bambang earlier held a meeting with president of state oil and gas company Pertamina Martiono Hadianto and the executives of Mobil Oil Indonesia, a subsidiary of American oil and gas firm Mobil-Exxon, which operates the giant liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Arun.
During the meeting, Pertamina and Mobil briefed Bambang on the worsening situation in Aceh.
More than one million Acehnese held a rally on Monday in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh to demand an East Timor-style referendum.
Meanwhile, Reuters quoted a source at PT Arun NGL Co. in Singapore as saying that PT Arun and Mobil Oil had evacuated some staff out of the province.
The source said the families, including Indonesians and Americans, had left on either regular company or commercial flights to Medan or Singapore.
"We have two or three regular flights that leave Lhokseumawe to Medan and some families have left on them," he said.
Lhokseumawe, the base of PT Arun, is situated in the heartland of the Free Aceh Movement.
He said not all the families of the less than 50 expatriates employed by PT Arun or Mobil Indonesia had left Aceh, despite signs of rising tension as a campaign for independence in the resource rich province gains momentum.
Fewer than 75 percent of the company's 1,600 full-time staff are Acehnese.
"The situation is not that bad. The expatriates will not be harmed by the Acehnese because they don't want to have any problems with the Americans," the source said.
He said production at Arun NGL and condensate plants had not been affected by the current troubles.
Pertamina, in partnership with Mobil Corp. and a Japanese consortium, operates six Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plants with a production capacity of more than 11 million tons per year.
Sources said PT Arun was slated to export 196 LNG cargo shipments of 125,000 cubic metres each this year, with sales projected to fall to 121 cargo shipments next year due to declining reserves.
The Arun field's condensate production of about 42,000 barrels per day (bpd) would fall to 30,000-bpd next year.
TNI said it was withdrawing 600 troops from Aceh on Friday as part of efforts to defuse tension in the area.
The military was blamed for human right abuses in the province during the 32-year rule of former president Soeharto.
According to the source, the Arun LNG complex, two fertilizer plants and a paper and pulp factory were protected by a special security force of about 200.
He said it was unclear if they were part of the 600 troops Jakarta was pulling out of Aceh. (03/jsk)