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Sidoarjo mudflow can be terminated: Petroleum expert
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 08/16/2007 7:05 AM
< Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In contrast to claims the mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java, is an unstoppable natural phenomenon, an expert said Wednesday it could be stopped by channeling the mud to an underground relief well.
This effort would cost up to US$50 million and would take up to six months to complete, but the mudflow would then be stopped in a matter of hours.
""Based on our research, the disaster is purely caused by a mistake in the drilling activity (of Lapindo Brantas Inc.),"" said Rudi Rubiantoro, a former deputy of the Sidoarjo mudflow investigation team.
Lapindo Brantas Inc. is the company that has been held responsible for starting the mudflow.
Rudi said there were underground cracks caused by high pressure drilling activities, which reached 9,277 feet (2,833m) below the surface and were conducted without any safety casing.
""To prevent the cracks, the drill should have been equipped with a safety casing before reaching 6,200 feet below the ground,"" said Rudi, a petroleum engineer from the Bandung Institute of Technology's Research Affiliation Body (LAPI ITB).
The LAPI ITB has conducted its research with U.S. companies Boots&Coats and Abel Engineering, as well as Indonesia's BP Migas and Pertamina.
Previous scientific findings have shown the mudflow was caused by natural tectonic activity, which would have occurred with or without the drilling.
These findings said there was not enough data to conclude Lapindo's activity had triggered the disaster.
Scientists from the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology said the tectonic activity was due to a mud volcano up to 2,000 meters below the ground.
The agency said the activity was triggered by the May 27, 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta, which created underground cracks allowing the mud to move.
But Rudi said, ""It is impossible the earthquake caused the mud to come out"".
""There was no mud flow that occurred ... even nearer to the earthquake site, which is located 300 kilometers from the drilling site,"" Rudi explained.
The hot mud started to erupt from the drilling site in Sidoarjo on May 29, 2006.
But Rudi said the events could only be linked if the earthquake had exceeded 9 MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity), which is closed to the Richter scale.
The Yogyakarta earthquake recorded 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Rudi said it would take about 160 minutes to stop the mudflow but it would take five or six months to prepare for this effort.
He said a relief well would be needed to make a channel to the underground site through which the mud could come out.
The mudflow could be stopped using a high-density fluid injected into the channel.
""It will cost around US$50 million to build the relief well,"" Rudi said.
But if no effective measures to stop the mudflow were made soon, Rudi said the condition would get worse and would cost the state around $500 million.
He said there were a number of foreign companies willing to handle the mudflow free of charge.
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Brien (not verified) — Mon, 08/25/2008 - 5:50pm
I certainly hope that Rudi is very creative geological mining engineer; He states that a channel would have to be drilled so that the mud could come out, AND he wants to inject a high density fluid into that same channel, at the same time??
But if he wants to fill this gargantuan cavity which has been created at 7000 feet deep, he would need at least the same amount of mud that has erupted. Next, he would need a large number of these relief wells as his high-density fluid would be immediately diluted by the super heated gas and rendered ineffective.
An equally effective idea would be to shove a one megaton atomic bomb down this channel into the sludge. But then I've also seen what happens when one tosses a grenade down into a dungy.