Locals, Pertamina to end Tambun oil field dispute
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Bekasi
Residents of Kedung Jaya village in Babelan district, Bekasi regency, will meet with officials from state oil company Pertamina on Thursday to discuss the tanker trucks that pass the village on their way to and from the nearby Tambun oil field.
"We expect the Pertamina general manager himself to come and talk with us and meet our demands," said village council head Saibih on Tuesday.
The villagers want Pertamina to repair and widen the three kilometers of road from the Kedung Jaya intersection to the oil field, which passes near the village. Residents blame the trucks for damaging the road.
"The asphalt road was only constructed to sustain weights of up to four tons. With 16,000-liter tanker trucks passing by, each one weighing up to 20 tons, we need a concrete road," Saibih said.
The Jakarta Post observed that the road was dotted with large, water-filled potholes. The only smooth section was 500 meters from the oil field.
The villagers are also demanding that Pertamina compensate them for cracks in the walls of their homes and damage to their roofs, which they blame on the trucks. They also want compensation for the mental anguish they claim to have suffered from the constant rumbling of the passing trucks.
A truck passes the area about every 15 minutes, adding up to almost 100 trucks per day.
Rice farmers in the village also blame pollution from the oil field for crop failures. One farmer said that since the oil field opened in 1999, he had experienced several poor harvests from four tons a hectare to only 200 kilograms per hectare.
"We want a complete environmental study to determine if the oil field, especially the heat-radiating flare towers that occasionally spurt out crude oil, have affected our fields," said Endang, a community leader.
He wants Pertamina to compensate all farmers with land within a certain distance of the oil field, with the exact distance to be later determined by the environmental study.
With annual revenue of Rp 4.3 billion (US$511,905) from the oil field, which produces 20,000 barrels of oil per day, the villagers want to know why Pertamina has not invested any money into improving the surrounding community.
"The regency is supposed to receive an annual share of Rp 1.9 billion but somehow it never reaches our village," said Saibih.
On Monday, villagers blocked off the road in front of their village, preventing trucks from reaching the oil field. The protest forced the field to halt production in order to prevent its 2,000-barrel storage tanks from overflowing.
And on Sunday, locals protested by planting banana shoots in potholes on the road.
"(The banana shoots) were to warn passing motorcyclists about the potholes and to let passing Pertamina officials know how bad the condition of the road is. Unfortunately, the officials didn't get the hint, so we put up the barricade (on Monday)," said Saibih.
Monday's barricade ended in the evening when an agreement was reached between villager, Bekasi deputy regent Solihin Sari and Pertamina spokesman Yunus to hold the talks on Thursday.