Nurul Hidayati/PT & GB, Jakarta – Civil unrest has flared in Bontang, East Kalimantan, Monday. Locals blockaded the American-owned Tanjung Santan Unocal Terminal oil refinery, clashed with security forces and 23 locals suffered gun shot wounds.
The injured were treated at the East Kalimantan Central Hospital in Bontang. All those "detained" in the Marangkayu Local Government Clinic were local residents. The victims were shot at by local security forces out the front of the terminal after a long standing blockade.
The blockade had been in place over 14 days after the Foreign Capital Enterprise from the United States was accused of reneging on a compensation agreement. Local residents were enraged after receiving lab results on the quality of their air which the company allegedly polluted. The results revealed that unacceptably high levels of toxic fumes such as sulfide and ammonia, to name just a few, were present in the air and were a danger to the local populace.
The incident came to a head when a spokesperson for Unacol, M Ramli stated that the Tanjung Sanen Terminal would stop production within the next two or three days but instead brought in the security forces. Ramli said that his main concern was over the shutdown of large scale production machinery. He said if this were to occur, it would take at least 40 days for production levels to return to some sort of normality.
"If fuel production stops then the function of the Santan Terminal will stop, as a result Unocal oil and natural gas production will stop because the oil and natural gas which is drilled offshore will be prevented from going to Badak Liquid Natural Gas Refinery in Bontang. Oil and natural gas will pile up in the Tanjung Sanatan terminal, and the terminal will soon reach maximum capacity," explained M Ramli.
Ramli had threatened to call on the help of local police and military forces to breakup the blockade if locals continued. Last Saturday night, Ramli carried out his threats and the police and military started to gather in front of the Tanjung Santan plant. A clash resulted and security forces opened fire on demonstrators resulting in 23 people sustaining gunshot injuries.
Unocal operates in Indonesia under the Unocal Indonesian Company (UIC) name and has had a production sharing contract with the state owned oil and gas enterprise Pertamina since 1968. The American Uniocal Group has 100% ownership over UIC which has concessions over 20,700 hectares of land in the Indonesian archipelago.
Unicol has two offshore drilling operations near North and Southeast Kalimantan with a further nine land based operations. On the whole UIC owns five KPS operations in East Kalimantan: East Kalimantan KPS (100% Unocol), South Makassar KPS (Unocal 50% and Mobil Oil 50%), Selulu KPS (Unocol 80% and Lasmo 20%). Their total petrol and natural gas production in East Kalimantan includes 58,651 barrels of oil per day, along with 222 million cubic feet of natural gas per day which is exported to Japan, Korea and Taiwan.