CNOOC officials apologizes, let police to take sample

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Officials from oil company China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) came to the Jakarta Police Headquarters on Wednesday to apologize for "a miscommunication" when they denied access to the force to take an oil sample from its rig in the Kepulaun Seribu (Thousand Islands) last week.

"We will take the oil sample from the CNOOC rig on Widuri Island next week," said Adj. Sr. Comr. Ahmad Haydar, the city police resources and environmental division chief.

The police had visited the rig on Feb. 18 but were denied access by workers, who said that besides a search warrant, the police also had to submit a permit from the oil and gas upstream regulator (BP Migas).

"We already have samples from an oil spill, but we must compare them with the oil sample from the rig for the investigation," Haydar said.

BP Migas' deputy chairman, Kardaya Warnika, said as quoted by Tempo Interaktif that the regulator had received a report from CNOOC about the police summons. CNOOC had been summoned by city police over a reported oil spill.

"The CNOOC officials will comply with the summons."

He said the Office of the State Minister of the Environment and the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) have tested the oil spillage samples but the results have not been released.

Test results from the National Police forensic lab showed that acidity in the polluted waters reached 5.7 pH, whereas normal acidity should range between 6 and 9 pH.

Fishermen in the area had complained about the polluted waters in the vicinity of the rig, saying it had affected their catch, thereby reducing their daily income from Rp 300,000 (US$36) to Rp 100,000.