http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1686339.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1686339.htm
Broadcast: 13/07/2006
Gas exploration disaster hits Indonesia
Reporter: Geoff Thompson
MAXINE MCKEW: Poisonous mud and gas erupting from kilometres below the
earth, 8,000 people displaced and hundreds hospitalised: it all sounds like
another of Indonesia's frequent natural disasters, but not this time. The
latest calamity on the island of Java has been caused by a gas exploration
project that has gone horribly wrong, and for the past six weeks, has unleashed
hundreds of tonnes of hot toxic mud. Indonesia's police are threatening to
charge some of the drill operators with criminal negligence. And caught up in
it all are two Australian companies. Oil and gas giant Santos is a minority
shareholder in the venture, while the expertise of another Australian company -
Century Resources - has been called in to try and halt the blow out. Indonesia
Correspondent Geoff Thompson filed this report from the affected area near
Surabaya in East Java.
MAN #1: A disaster like this has never occurred before.
MAN #2: This is very deep and we don't know yet until today what's
happened in Sidoarjo.
MAN #3: This is a disaster for the people.
GEOFF THOMPSON, INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT: Perched atop the Pacific Rim of
fire, Indonesia is certainly no stranger to natural catastrophes, and when hot
toxic mud first burst from the ground near a gas exploration well in east Java,
people were quick to blame the earthquake in Yogyakarta, 270 kilometres away.
But this misfortune is of man's making. Six weeks ago, a drilling rig on this
site reached three kilometres underground and encountered a problem. Attempts
were made to shut the well, but then the earth opened up. First, a major crack
appeared here and now they've appeared all around, spewing at least 500 cubic
metres of toxic mud every day. An area of 12 square kilometres has now been
covered and four entire villages have been affected, displacing almost 8,000
people.
IMAM KHOLILI (Translation): When smeltered, I had trouble breathing and a
sore throat and felt like I wanted to be sick.
GEOFF THOMPSON: There's been no World Cup fun for the residents of
Sidoarjo. Their houses are chest-deep in mud, along with their rice paddies and
the factories where they work. Thousands of the internally displaced now live
at this new concrete market complex, turned refugee camp. Each person surviving
on handouts of $11 a week. Imam Kholili has lost both his family's home, and
his livelihood. He took us back to where life as he knew it hit the end of the
road. His street is now under more than 1m of mud and he says the inside of his
home is even worse.
IMAM KHOLILI (Translation): It came from that direction, the one who saw
it coming first was my wife, because she was selling stuff out here. The men
were actually working out here fixing the dam, but the dam was not strong
enough, so my wife started rescuing our children and our belongings to take
them to the camp when the mud came, flowing like hot water.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Stopping the mud flows could take months, despite
attempts to do so with a snubbing unit brought in by the project's coordinator
and majority shareholder, Lapindo Brantas. Amir Hamzah represents the
Indonesian Government's gas and oil regulator responsible for the project.
AMIR HAMZAH, BP MIGAS: But the competition is not finished yet, of
course. We are awaiting the team to calculate any possible... any possible
compensation that we have to do it.
GEOFF THOMPSON: The final compensation bill is expected to run into the
hundreds of millions of dollars. Not exactly welcome news to one of the
project's minority partners: the Australian gas and oil giant, Santos, which
has released a statement saying that it has appropriate insurance cover for
such occurrences. Santos, which has an 18 per cent stake in the venture, does
not want to comment further. Other than to say that: "Santos is deeply
concerned by [the] incident, particularly its impact on the local community and
the environment. Santos is monitoring the response efforts closely, with an
immediate priority of supporting measures by the Operator of the well to assist
those affected and to minimise the environmental impact." The project's other
partner is PTMedco with a 32 per cent stake. And while it won't comment
publicly, a leaked letter to Lapindo Brantas makes it clear where it stands.
"We consider Lapindo Brantas," the letter reads, "has committed a gross
negligence [for not] anticipating potential hole problems [and setting the
right drill-casing] as agreed in the drilling program", it says. Santos
declined an opportunity to comment on the letter, but a representative of the
Bakrie family group, which owns Lapindo Brantas, says all the project's
partners agreed to the drilling program.
S. ZUDHI PANE, PT BUMI RESOURCES TBK.: Of course, even from the very
beginning when we propose, Lapindo Brantas proposed to drill this, the drilling
proposal as well as the agreed drilling procedure and program agreed by all the
parties, including Santos.
AMIR HAMZAH: I don't know yet, I don't know yet, so this is very
difficult because they have their own business. We don't know what's happened
between Santos and also Lapindo Brantas as well. We'll be waiting on it.
GEOFF THOMPSON: The drilling contractor hired by Lapindo is currently the
focus of a police investigation. 50 people have been interviewed and six may
face charges punishable by up to 12 years in jail.
M. AMHAR AZETH, CHIEF OF DETECTIVES, EAST JAVA: We started from the man
in the field - what you said just now - the little people, because he is the
doer, you know. He was done something.
GEOFF THOMPSON: So you're starting from the bottom and working your way
up?
AMHAR AZETH: That's right. This is, you know, the Indonesian, you know,
procedure of setting up the law.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Indonesian procedure also allowed Lapindo's drilling
contract to go to a company also under the influence of the powerful Bakrie
family, of which Indonesia's ambitious chief welfare minister, Aburizal Bakrie,
is the leading light.
ZUDHI PANE: I'm quite sure that Lapindo already do everything in
accordance with the normal procedure; at least, in this country.
GEOFF THOMPSON: The normal procedures, but that still means that
family-linked companies can get the contract?
ZUDHI PANE: Mm, I'd rather not comment on that. (Laughs)
GEOFF THOMPSON: Environmentalists say the searing mud is a toxic brew of
harmful chemicals churned up with dangerous gases.
TORRY KUSWARDONO, INDONESIAN ENVIRONMENT FORUM: There are two things:
first, it's the mud and second, it's the gas, the hydrogen sulphide. It can
cause severe infection to the respiratory systems.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Hundreds of people, particularly the young and old, have
been hospitalised, complaining of nausea, diahorrea and breathing problems.
Others just get burnt.
ACHMAD BASYORI (Translation): Bad, the skin is peeled off on both legs.
It's been one week and they're still feeling hot.
GEOFF THOMPSON: The Sidoarjo incident is a toxic cocktail of political
power, corporate negligence and environmental disaster, which has the nation's
activists looking for someone on whom the mud might stick.
HARYA SETYAKA S. DILLON, BANDUNG INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: The country has
never seen a disaster like this, such magnitude, you know, the backyard of all
these people, so many affected by this, and sort of a blatant disregard by the
very senior officials of the government.
TORRY KUSHWARDONO: I think everybody who were involved to invest in
Lapindo in Brantas plot has to be embarrassed because of these accidents.
Because they invest in a very irresponsible project.
GEOFF THOMPSON: No imminent solution is in sight, but another Australian
company - Century Resources - is on its way, hoping that its 1,500 tonne
drilling rig might relieve some of the pressure; underground, at least.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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