Farmer finds oil well in a Brebes village

Nana Rukmana and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post/Cirebon/Jakarta

When Slamet Bukhori, a middle-aged farmer in the village of Kertasinduyasa, in Brebes, Central Java, went to take a bath on Thursday, he did not expect anything out of the ordinary, and was surprised to find that the water he took out from his well was heavily infiltrated by oil.

Never before had Slamet had such an experience, and the fact that the area is far from oil fields or gas stations ruled out the possibility of a leakage.

That leaves only one possibility, Slamet might have just discovered that his house is sitting on an oil reserve.

"We are investigating whether it is true that there are oil reserves under the village," state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina's West Java spokeswoman Sri Kustini told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Slamet's finding on Thursday has drawn public attention, requiring the police to seal off the area surrounding the well, as many villagers have tried to take some of the water.

The police's involvement led to Pertamina's action.

Sri cited that the on-going investigation was not the first conducted by the company in the area surrounding Brebes. She said Pertamina also conducted a series of seismic tests in Brebes in 2003 and found two points at Dukuh Tengah village and Jagapura village -- neighboring villages to Slamet's village -- that may contain oil reserves.

Currently, Pertamina is conducting in-depth and advanced examinations of the two sites to determine whether there are oil reserves there, she added.

As for the oil in Slamet's well, citing the depth of the well, which is only around seven meters, Sri said the chances were quite slim of finding oil in the village.

"But, we still have to look at the possibility."

Most of the time, oil can only be found at a depth of 2,500 meters, although some -- like the Cepu field -- can also be found at 500 meters.

Commenting on Slamet, even if the investigation concludes that there is indeed an oil reserve, Sri said it would be unlikely that it would drastically change Slamet's life as a farmer, as based on existing regulations and laws, all natural resources belong to and must be controlled and managed by the state.

Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution states that water and land, and natural resources beneath it, belong to the state and shall be used for public welfare.

The article is further detailed in Law No. 21/2000 on oil and gas, which stipulates that Pertamina, as the representative of the government, will take over the land and provide proper compensation for its acquisition.

"We will buy the land, as well as the surrounding areas should there be sufficient oil reserves. The owner does not have any right at all over the oil," the firm's spokesman Mohammad Harun told the Post on Saturday.

"Our laws are different than, say, the laws of the United States, which allows the land owner to keep and sell the oil. The finding in Brebes may not change the lives of the villagers."