President asks businessmen to help improve local welfare

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on businessmen engaged in industry to maintain good relations with local people and help them improve their welfare through various social activities.

"I would like to advise owners of industrial enterprises, including gas and oil businessmen, in Indonesia that they should maintain good relations with the local people," the president said during a teleconference here on Tuesday with a number of workers in Ujung Pangkah-Gresik (Hess) and Lapangan Oyong-Sampang oil fields in East Java.

Before holding the teleconference, the president opened an Asia-Pacific Gas and Oil Exhibition and Conference organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He also commissioned the production facilities of the Lapangan Ujung Pangkah-Gresik and Lapangan Oyong-Sampang (Santos) oil fields.

The president said industrial enteprise owners should pay attention to the local people so that they would also enjoy the benefits of economic growth.

"It should not happen that a major industry is operating and paying good salaries to its employees in a certain region while the region`s local people live in poverty," the president said.

He said the activities of industries would run well and smoothly if the local people could feel they also belonged to the company.

During the teleconference, Anton Pasaribu who worked in the maintenance section of the production facilities of Hess in the Lapangan Ujung Pangkah oil field, Gresik, said that the oil and gas field had been in production since April 2007. Its gas production had reached 100 million cubic feet which was channeled to state-owned electricity company PLN through the Java-Bali grid in Gresik (East Java).

The amount of investment in the Lapangan Ujung Pangkah (Gresik) and Lapangan Oyong (Sampang) oil and gas fields totaled US$1.232 billion. They employed 1,930 workers during the construction period and 528 employees after they had become operational.

The Ujung Pangkah field is expected to produce 100 million metric standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of natural gas, 1,800 bpld of condensate, 25,000 bopd (barrels of oil per day) of petreleum plus condensate and 6,000 bopd of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The Oyong field was expected to produce 8,000 to 10,000 bopd of petroleum and 60 mmscfd of natural gas.