Jed Clampett-wannabe strikes out

The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, West Java

After a series of tests and studies, state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina stated it had found no oil reserves on land belonging to Slamet Bukhori, a farmer in Brebes, West Java.

Slamet claimed two weeks ago that the water in his well was mixed with oil. His claim drew a lot of public attention, requiring the police to seal off the area surrounding the well, as many villagers have tried to take some of the water, prompting Pertamina to undergo tests in the hopes of finding oil reserves in surrounding areas.

On Monday however, they released the results of the study, concluded that there was not a sufficient amount of oil found to declare the area an oil reserve.

"Based on our technical team's research, we concluded that the infiltrated water that Slamet found could not be categorized as oil," Pertamina's West Java spokeswoman Sri Kustini said.

Ari Buhari, the research team leader explained that the oil- like substance in Slamet's well could not be considered oil.

"We took a water sample two days after Slamet reported the substance in his well," said Sri Kustini, adding that the team was also joined by Pertamina's environmental protection and work safety team.

Sri Kustini commented earlier after the finding that it was not likely that there would be an oil reserve in the area as the well was only six to seven meters deep.

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.

She also mentioned that this was not Pertamina's first investigation in the area, as it had conducted a seismic survey in 2003, finding two potential oil reserve locations in Dukuh Tengah village and Jagapura village.

"We still need to do more research to determine whether the locations are worth exploring or not," she said.

Indonesia's oil production is on a declining trend, about 6 percent annually, over the years. And with oil consumption rising by about 5 percent per year, the country is in desperate needs of finding new oil reserves.