Caltex allots U$33 million for environmental protection
Caltex allots U$33 million for environmental protection
JAKARTA (JP): The country's largest oil producer PT Caltex
Pacific Indonesia (CPI) has budgeted US$33 million this year for
environmental protection, an increase of 37 percent over last
year's spending.
State-run oil enterprise Pertamina said in a statement here
Tuesday that CPI last year spent $24 million for environmental
programs, including the reforestation of over 675 hectares of
land and the planting of more than 175,000 trees.
Pertamina gave no details on the projected use of the funds
allocated for this year but said that CPI will regreen another
1,000 hectares of land and plant 325,000 trees this year.
CPI, one of Pertamina's production-sharing contractors, last
year pumped up an average of 720,000 barrels of oil per day,
about half of the country's total oil output.
CPI, Pertamina said, has also submitted a second environmental
impact analysis on its operations in Riau province to the
Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal).
The analysis, commonly known in the industry as an
environmental audit, was conducted in the first two weeks of last
August under the supervision of a U.S.-based auditing firm,
International Loss Control Institute, a subsidiary of Net Sorske
Veritas.
The first third-party audit was conducted in 1991 under the
direction of the U.S.-based environmental consulting company
Arthur D. Little Inc., Pertamina said.
However, Pertamina did not mention anything on last year's
environmental dispute between CPI and Sungai Limau villagers, who
accused the company of polluting Siak River tributaries in Riau.
Pertamina did confirm that CPI's regreening programs will cover
Sungai Limau, which, it said, was once a flooded area.
CPI acknowledged in a statement made available here yesterday
that the Sungai Limau and Rantau Bais projects are part of the
company's programs to make up for tree-covered areas that have
suffered from the discharge of water flowing from the company's
oil fields.
"With increased environmental awareness, especially among our
employees in the field, and with increased communication with the
community... CPI is now in a position to respond instantly and to
prevent similar cases from occurring in the future," said CPI's
president, Baihaki H. Hakim. (rid)