Oil-rich Babelan residents poor
Wahyuana, Bekasi
Abdul Somad expects no harvest this year as most of the rice he sowed on his 1,500 square meter patch have failed to produce grains.
"The heat produced by (state oil company) Pertamina's oil well has caused my crop to fail," said the 40-year-old farmer from Tambun village in Babelan district, Bekasi, whose field is located next to Pertamina's Tambun-A well.
Along with other farmers owning a total of 75 hectares of rice fields in the vicinity of the wells, Somad has often complained about a sharp decline in production from the usual three tons of rice per hectare to only about 800 kilograms per hectare today.
Rasam and Engkon, whose rice fields are located near the Tambun-F well, added that crude oil seepage had also polluted the water used for irrigation, and killed fish and plants.
Hundreds of other farmers of Buni Bhakti, Buni Baru, Muara Bhakti, Pondok Tengah and Pantai Hurip villages have been suffering the same problems as Somad and his fellow farmers, many of whom have lost their crops since Pertamina started operations in the area last year.
Environmentalists have reported finding unacceptable levels of heavy metals, such as chromium, zinc, cobalt and lead, in the rivers flowing through the area.
According to Bahrul Alam, chairman of the Buni Bhakti Residents Forum, they had asked Pertamina to compensate them for their losses. "But there has been no reply."
On April 16, a leak of about 30,000 barrels of crude oil affected Buni Baru village, forcing 400 residents to abandon their homes for one month. To date, there is still a strong smell of gas in the area, which locals believe presents a hazard to their safety.
The residents only received food worth Rp 15,000 (US$1.60) per day in the refugee shelters as compensation from Pertamina.
The Babelan oil field, located 25 kilometers north of Bekasi and 40 kilometers northeast of Jakarta, has estimated reserves of 424 million barrels of oil and 3.34 trillion cubic feet of gas. The company has 16 oil wells there.
The presence of the oil field is in contrast to the poverty- stricken villages that surround it, with villagers being entirely dependent on their rice harvests for survival.
"Half of the families here are categorized as poor households, and many of our young people are unemployed. They were promised work at the oil field, but we haven't heard anything about it since then," said Buni Bhakti village chief Hardi Suhardi.
Responding to the residents' complaints, Pertamina general manager for its West Java operations, Bambang Busono, said the company would pay out a total of Rp 2 billion in compensation to Buni Baru people this week.
"We will also invite experts from the Bogor Agriculture Institute to analyze whether the flames from the wells are affecting the villagers' crops. We will also check whether it is waste from the oil field or the chemicals used in agriculture that have caused the river pollution," he told the Post.