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On the northern tip of Jakarta, fishermen catch oil, not fish, after Pertamina well accident
During the The Jakarta Post’s visit to Untung Jawa Island, traces of oil were visible on both the shallow waters and on the beach.
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A resident cleans up an oil spill on Untung Jawa Island, Thousand Islands regency, Jakarta, on Sep. 3. The oil spill was caused by a leak in one of the wells owned by state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina at the Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) block near Karawang, West Java. (JP/Donny Fernando)
T
he oil spill from state energy giant Pertamina’s Offshore North West Java block that occurred 2 kilometers off the coast of Karawang, West Java, on July 12 has reached nine islands in Thousand Islands regency as of September, with islands such as Untung Jawa and Lancang suffering the most from the spill.
The spill follows a gas well kick, an unplanned and often violent release of gas caused by low pressure in a wellbore.
Officials from the Environment and Forestry Ministry previously estimated environmental clean-up efforts would take as long as six months.
“The ministry has not finished conducting an environmental impact analysis yet. However, we are aware that Pertamina has already started placing oil boom tools, which trap the spill from spreading to more areas. Furthermore, they [Pertamina] have already deployed 44 ships to prevent the spill from reaching more islands,” said the ministry’s director general, Karliansyah, on Friday.
People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA) secretary-general Susan Herawati estimates it will take a year or more to clean up the oil from the Karawang and Thousand Islands seas.
“KIARA’s earliest environmental impact assessment indicates that at the current rate of leakage, if not stopped within one year, the pollution could be as adverse as the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea in 2009,” Susan told The Jakarta Post.
KIARA shared a photo with the Post that shows the remains of a dolphin discovered at Pelangi Beach in Karawang. According to coalition officials at the scene, the dolphin bones reeked of oil.
