Rangga D. Fadillah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 05/22/2012 8:00 AM
PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI) has insisted that its bioremediation project at its oil fields in Riau is not fictitious and has complied with all legal procedures applied by the government of Indonesia.
CPI president director Abdul Hamid Batubara said the project was included in the company’s annual work plan and budget (WP and B), which was approved by upstream oil and gas authority BPMigas.
“The technical details on the bioremediation process have also been approved by the Environment Ministry, including the amount of soil that has to be analyzed,” he told The Jakarta Post during an exclusive interview session at his office in Jakarta on Monday.
Bioremediation is a method in which the microorganism metabolism is used to remove pollutants for environmental purposes. The process aims to normalize soil that has been contaminated by waste from oil production activities.
Chevron has conducted research to find the best methods of normalizing contaminated soil since 1994. The company began the practice of a scale pilot project in 1997. CPI officially entered the bioremediation project in its work plan in 2003.
The company initially managed the project on its own, but since 2006 it appointed contractors to take part in the project, mainly moving contaminated soil from its original location to the bioremediation facilities.
CPI said the appointment of contractors had been conducted through transparent and accountable processes.
According to the decree, the soil is said to be safe if the contamination level is no more than 1 percent. Processing must not take longer than eight months.
With continuous research and study, Abdul said the company could currently normalize the soil within only three to four months.
From 2003 to 2011, CPI spent US$10.5 million for the bioremediation project.
Responding to the Attorney General’s Office’s (AGO) allegation that the project might be flawed, Chevron is currently cooperating with BPMigas and the Environment Ministry to recheck project validity. “The Supreme Audit Agency [BPK] and the Development and Finance Audit Agency [BPKP] are now also auditing the project. Our audit from 2003 to 2011 found no violations or misconduct in the implementation of the bioremediation project,” Abdul said.
The AGO found indications of legal violations involving the project. The AGO accused the CPI of appointing incompetent companies – PT Green Planet Indonesia and PT Sumigita Jaya — to run the project. According to the AGO, the companies were not certified for waste treatment work.
The AGO said the it would charge Chevron with Articles 2 and 3 of the 2001 Corruption Law on benefiting private parties while causing state losses. Each article carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/22/bioremediation-project-not-fictitious-chevron.html
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