New oil spill affects Thousand Islands

New oil spill affects Thousand Islands

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta

Head of the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD)
Kosasih Wirahadikusumah said on Tuesday an oil spill that caused
serious pollution at the Thousand Islands Maritime National Park
occurred last week but so far no party had claimed responsibility
for it.

He said the new incident had caused serious environmental
damage both to seawater and to islands surrounding the maritime
park because oil waste had spread over a wide area.

A similar oil spill occurred late December last year, also
causing serious pollution. The China National Offshore Oil Corp.
(CNOOC) was reported to the police by an environmental group over
the December incident, but the investigation was still going on.

According to Kosasih, the new oil spill had nothing to do with
the dead fish in Jakarta Bay.

"This is a new matter. I have received a complaint only from
the maritime park management that oil has polluted the park," he
said.

He added there were two possibilities on the source of the
pollution. "We cannot decide whether the oil come from an
offshore oil rig or a passing tanker. There are dozens of rigs in
the area and dozens of tankers passing through."

Kosasih said the investigation of the incident was the
responsibility of the Office of the State Minister of the
Environment, while the BPLHD would only be responsible for
treating areas that had suffered environmental damage.

He added that based on the international convention, CNOOC,
whose rigs were closest to the incident site, was tasked with
cleaning up the seawater surrounding the maritime park from oil
waste.

He said the environmental damage caused by the new incident
was similar to the impat of last December's oil spill.

Speaking about the investigation of the dead fish found in
Jakarta, Kosasih promised to disclose the result of the
investigation on Friday.