E

xxon Mobil has said that it will resume production at the Cepu oil block in East Java on Sunday, after a workers'€™ incident a day earlier forced the company to halt the production of as much as 55,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).

The company'€™s spokesperson Erwin Mayoto said that the extent of the damage was still being assessed, but initial assessments showed that there was little to no impact on the Banyu Urip facilities in Cepu.

A '€œdisturbance'€ took place when subcontractor workers were leaving the worksite around lunchtime on Saturday, Erwin said. However, Erwin did not disclose the cause of the disturbance.

Meanwhile, another source said that the incident was triggered by the company'€™s policy to reduce access to the facility from five entrance gates to only two. The workers, who were standing in line in front of the gate to leave the worksite for lunch, reportedly got angry and vandalized the buildings and parked vehicles.

'€œThe incident was caused by an unclear regulation [in the company]'€ a worker, who asked to remain anonymous, was quoted by kompas.com as saying.

'€œThere were no casualties in the incident,'€ the company'€™s communication manager Rizka Laksmi said.

Following the riot, Exxon Mobil stopped its activities in Cepu.

'€œWe stopped the operation because of disruptions in a sensitive zone,'€ the government'€™s Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force'€™s (SKKMigas) spokesperson Elan Biantoro said on Saturday.

Elan could not confirm when asked whether the incident would impact Exxon Mobil'€™s output target. In September, the company is expected to produce 165,000 bopd from the current figure of 80,000 bopd. Elan stated that the company was currently assessing the damage and calculating the loss.

'€œThis is just a one-day incident and the main facilities were not damaged. We haven'€™t predicted yet whether the annual production target would be affected,'€ he said.

The government is currently mediating discussions between Exxon Mobil, the operator, and Tripatra-Samsung, the subcontractor company, to seek solution.

'€œWe want to investigate the real cause. We don'€™t want the same incident to happen again in the future,'€ Elan added.

The Cepu oil block, where state oil-and-gas company Pertamina holds 45 percent of its shares, has been regarded as the backbone or predominant source of national production.

Exxon Mobil previously said that this year crude oil output from the field was expected to increase to 205,000 bopd, or around 25 percent of the national output target of 825,000 bopd. (saf)