600 Hectares of Land in Banyu Urip is Released
Wednesday, 02 April, 2008 | 13:09 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Semarang: 600 hectares of land in Banyu Urip Bojonegoro will be soon released. The land that is mainly rice fields is being freed for an oil exploration project. It is thought that it contains more than 250 million of barrels.

“It is still in the negotiating process,” said Deva Rachman, Communications Manager of Exxon Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc, in Semarang last night.

Rachman added that the oil exploration project is long term, 30 years of targeting 160 thousands of barrels every day. It is planned that by the end of 2008, 10 hectares of land will have been released. “By the end of 2008, 20 thousands barrels will be produced for every day,” he said.

Rachman said the price to release the land is Rp 50 thousand per meter as is recommended by Oil & Gas Upstream Executing Body (BP Migas). The funding for this comes from the government.

According to Rahman, there are obstacles in releasing the land. One of them is speculators who want to take advantage of the oil exploration project. “We regret it because it’s a financial loss to the local community,” he said.

Rachman continued that if the land goes to this speculator, the government will buy the land at a high price while they purchase it cheaply from the local community.

Rofiuddin