Pertamina Continues Cleaning Up Oil Spill on the Shoreline

Balikpapan – Though investigation is on progress, Pertamina continued the recovery of oil spill in Balikpapan Bay. As the sea was cleaned up, Pertamina sent out oil spill cleanup verification team to identify the level of oil content in a number of affected areas. The verification process that started on Tuesday (10/4) was conducted on four zones of affected area.

Region Manager Communication & CSR Kalimantan Yudy Nugraha explained, the affected areas divides into four zones representing each sub-district.

“These four zones are Balikpapan Barat, Balikpapan Selatan, Balikpapan Kota, and Penajam,” he said.

Zone 1 consist of Baru Tengah Village, Baru Ulu Village, Kariangau Village, Margasari Village, and Margo Mulyo Village. Zone 2 consist of Prapatan Village, Klandasan Ulu Village, Klandasan Ilir Village, and Damai Village. Zone 3 consist of Damai Bahagia Village, Damai Baru Village, Gunung Bahagia Village, and Sepinggan Village. Zone 4 consist of Penajam Village.

Yudy explained, the verification team will ascertain the current condition of the affected areas. It is important that there is a common standard for all affected areas. “Suppose one area was cleaned about 80%, whats its standard look like. Then, another area was 50% cleaned, what is the standard,” he said.

With the results from the verification team, Pertamina can establish a monitoring system mechanism for all affected locations and become a reference to decide the next step. This verification process involves several parties, Pertamina, the Environment Agency, and the community. Thus, the result of verification is not one-sided from Pertamina, but has been agreed by the parties involved (agencies and communities).

“The verification result will determined our next step, such as the next cleaning methode or the precaution step for impacts that could happened,” Yudy added.