T

he administration of Bandung regency, West Java, and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) have raised administrative and environmental questions about the expansion of geothermal wells belonging to PT Chevron Geothermal Indonesia.

Bandung Regent Dadang Naser said that the four new geothermal wells in Cihawuk subdistrict, Kertasari district, were opened without regency administration coordination, while Walhi questioned the wells’ expansion into a protected forest.

Executive director of Walhi’s West Java branch Dadan Ramdan accused Chevron of having destroyed 39.5 hectares of protected conservation-forest in the subdistrict and hiding behind Presidential Regulation No. 28/2011 on the use of protected forests for underground mining.

“There are indications of violations of prevailing procedures as indicated by their not being open about the license when they informed the local administration and community,” Dadan said, adding that his organization was mulling whether to file a class action on behalf of the local community against the company.

Separately, Regent Dadang demanded a replacement area twice as large as the site currently used by Chevron. “We have asked for the replacement area but Chevron said it had a license from the Forestry Ministry. Yet, it did not coordinate with us at all,” Dadang said.

The ministry’s director general of natural conservation and forest preservation, Darori, said that the license that had been given to Chevron some 12 years ago was in accordance with prevailing laws and regulations. “Chevron got the license because the site was previously a production forest managed by (state-owned) Perum Perhutani,” Darori said on Tuesday, adding that the production forest was later turned into a protected forest in 2003.

“We are assessing solutions. Will it need re-licensing or be made into an enclave? If (mining) was allowed then, but is not now, the government will be accused of being inconsistent. That’s why an assessment is needed,” he said.

Chevron’s government and public relations manager Alimin Ginting said that the company had a joint operation contract with state-run oil and gas company PT Pertamina for geothermal exploration over some 5,000 out of 6,800 hectares of the Gunung Darajat and Papandayan forest region in the border of Garut and Bandung regencies.

Forest clearance, he said, had been carried out since early 2011 for four new wells in Bandung regency. Previously Chevron had exploited geothermal energy in the forest under the Garut regency jurisdiction and had been producing 256 megawatts of electricity. “The source of the energy is located underground. The clearance was only for roads and exploration for geothermal energy,” Alimin told The Jakarta Post.