Jakarta – Chevron Pacific Indonesia, a local subsidiary of the American oil and gas company, has spilled an unknown amount of oil at one of its facilities at Dumai Port in Riau on Saturday, and the company is working to contain the spill and assess the damage to the surrounding area, Chevron Pacific said on Monday.

Sonitha Poernomo, Chevron Pacific's corporate communications manager, said the company currently does not have the measurement on the amount of the spilled oil. Still, the company had reason to believe that the leaks did not amount to thousands of barrels, she said.

"At that time, pipes and ports were not being used, and officers immediately cleaned and repaired the leaking pipes," Sonitha said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Chevron Pacific had installed an oil boom to prevent the spread and took steps to clean up and collect spills. The company had also coordinated with the Dumai city government to address the problem.

"We are committed to running operations safely and reliably while protecting the community and the surrounding environment," Sonitha said.

Afdal Syamsir, the head of the environmental control and pollution division at Dumai's environment department, said the department had deployed officers to oversee the oil spill's handling to prevent further oil spread.

"Handling of spills is quite good with a four-layer oil boom, and cleaning is also done quickly," Afdal said. The department would sit with a team from the Environment and Forestry Ministry today to decide further action, he said.

Chevron Pacific uses the Dumai Port facility to transport oil and gas from Rokan block, Indonesia's largest oil and gas interest that the company has owned and operated since 1971.

Chevron Pacific's rights on the block will expire in August, and state energy company Pertamina would take over the block from then on. Rokan block churned out barrels of crude oil and 19 million cubic feet of natural gas in 2019 per day on average in 2019, the company data showed.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/chevron-pacific-indonesia-reports-oil-spill-at-dumai-facilit