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Pertamina on hand in handling oil waste in Thousand Islands
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Public facility workers collect coagulated oil found on the shore of Pari Island of the Thousand Islands regency on Tuesday. (Thousand Islands Environment Agency/kompas.com/-)
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tate-owned energy company Pertamina, through its subsidiary Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE) Offshore Southeast Sumatra (OSES), has been assisting the Thousand Islands administration in Jakarta to clean up the coagulated oil waste seen in the waters and beaches of some of the islands in the regency recently.
“The PHE OSES has been assisting the local administration and coordinating with local authorities and the community to clean up the oil spill,” PHE media and relations manager Yudy Nugraha told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The company has expressed objection to a previous news article published by the Post, which he said was “an accusation against Pertamina for being the source of pollution”.
As reported in the news article, residents of Pari Island said they had seen the oil waste in the waters of Pari and Lancang islands since Friday before the clotted oil reached the coast of Pari on Tuesday morning.
Read also: Coagulated oil on Pari Island may have come from passing ships, environment agency says
While the Thousand Islands Environment Agency said the oil might have originated from ships sailing through the waters, Pari residents suspected the oil waste had leaked from Pertamina’s drilling operation in Indramayu and Karawang in West Java.
The residents also claimed such pollution had regularly occurred in recent years, especially in the month of August along with easterly currents and winds, including during last year’s oil spill from Pertamina’s YYA-1 exploration well.
However, Yudy said, the YYA-1 well had been closed since September last year.
“The source of the oil spill [in Pari] is still unclear,” he said.
A fingerprint test on a sample of the oil spill will be conducted to find the source.
