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With Deepwater Horizon expertise on board, Pertamina looks to stop oil leak at all costs
Pertamina upstream director Dharmawan Samsu said the company would need at least until the end of September to fix the leak that began two weeks ago, with efforts to close the leak still ongoing.
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People clean up oil on Cemaranaya Beach that leaked from a nearby offshore oil and gas well in the Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) Block operated by state-owned energy giant Pertmina’s upstream subsidiary Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE). (Antara/M. Ibnu Chazar)
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aving hired United States well control company Boots & Coots, which handled the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, state-owned energy giant Pertamina has shut down its operations in the Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) Block and is prioritizing efforts to stop the oil leak and mitigate environmental damage.
The emergency response team of Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE), Pertamina’s upstream subsidiary, has also been working closely with local communities affected by the oil spill, with help from the Indonesian Military (TNI). Seven villages in Karawang, West Java, have been affected, with oil leaking into the sea and covering beaches within walking distance of houses.
Pertamina upstream director Dharmawan Samsu said the company would need at least until the end of September to fix the leak that began two weeks ago, with efforts to close the leak still ongoing.
“We need eight weeks from today or 10 weeks from the first day of the incident” to stop the leak and completely close down the broken YYA-1 well, Dharmawan told the press on Thursday. That timeframe excludes cleaning up the contaminated sea and beaches.
Pertamina will deploy a portable rig to inject cement into the broken well. Afterwards, the YYA-1 well will be closed “forever”, Dharmawan said, adding that “for other areas, we will conduct evaluations based on economic value.”
To contain the oil spill, Pertamina has deployed 29 ships and stretched out more than 6 kilometers of oil booms, a temporary floating barrier used to reduce the pollution of shorelines, he added.
“The first measure is to close down the broken well, so we can stop the well from leaking more oil,” said Fajriyah Usman, Pertamina corporate communication vice president.
