Karawang Waters Again Polluted by Oil Spill

Karawang: The waters off Karawang, West Java, have, again, been polluted by oil spilled from Pertamina's Offshore North West Java (ONWJ) Block after the state energy giant vouched plugging a leaky oil well there in September.

"We have received a report that the Karawang waters have been polluted again," Wawan Setiawan, head of the local Environment Office, stated here on Friday, November 15, 2019.
In the meantime, Vice President Relations of the upstream energy company Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE) Ifki Sukarya has given confirmation on the report.

"Owing to the extreme weather at sea, oil chunks collected from the platform and rig slipped out of the oil boom," the PHE official explained.

According to him, the company has been prompt in taking requisite measures to clean up the oil spill, he remarked.

"Our team is still on the field to clean up the oil spill," Ifki stated.

In July, an oil spill from the PHE-ONWJ Block had polluted the Karawang waters. The oil spill was caused by a gas well kick on July 12 that worsened two days later. The kick is the release of gas by low pressure in a wellbore. The kick occurred beneath the ONWJ Block platform, located two kilometers north of Karawang.

At the time, the company deployed oil booms spread over an area spanning 8,605 meters to mitigate the oil spill. (Antara)



(WAH)