Balikpapan Oil Spill, Luhut: Wait for Investigation Results

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan requested all stakeholders to be patient in waiting for technical investigation results related to the crude oil spill involving state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina on Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan. Currently, efforts to investigate and stop the oil from spreading are underway.

Luhut stated that efforts in handling the oil spill have been carried out properly. Luhut added that the Environment and Forestry Ministry has sent two of its director general to be involved in the mitigation process.

In addition, Luhut claimed that he has directly questioned the Pertamina Director on efforts to handle the oil spill. "Now we are waiting for technical investigation on whose fault is the incident," Luhut said on Sunday, April 8, 2018.

Luhut asserted that the actual cause of the incident will be discovered after the technical investigation has been concluded. "Later we'll see who is to blame. If necessary, legal actions will be taken," Luhut added.

The oil spill, which was later followed by fire, occurred on Saturday, March 31, 2018. The incident claimed the lives of five people. The pipeline connecting the Lawe-lawe crude terminal with an oil rig in Balikpapan was said to be broken.

The pipeline, located 25 meters under the sea, was dislocated 120 meters away from its supposed position. Luhut asserted that the pipe was broken because it was hit by a ship anchor. The information was similar to what was explained by Director General of Oil and Gas of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Djoko Siswanto.

Pertamina denied that there was a negligence in safety supervision. However, Chief of Commission II of the Balikpapan Regional Representatives Council Nazaruddin, said that the incident was caused by Pertamina’s negligence for not implementing a supervision system to detect leaking pipes or oil spill.