Headquarters South Jakarta, Indonesia | ||
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PT Lapindo Brantas Inc is an Indonesian oil and gas exploration company, initially established as a joint venture between PT. Energi Mega Persada Tbk. (50%), PT. Medco Energi Tbk. (32%) and Santos Australia (18%). The Bakrie family, through its investments, held a controlling stake in PT. Energi Mega Persada Tbk. Lapindo Brantas currently employs a staff of 77 permanent and contract employees and 142 personnel working for the company through a third party contract.
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Locations
It operates in the Brantas Block in East Java, Indonesia where its working site covers 3,042 km2. encompassing two onshore and three offshore sites:
Area-1: Kediri Regency, Nganjuk Regency and Jombang Regency (onshore)
Area-2: Sidoarjo Regency, Pasuruan Regency and Mojokerto Regency (onshore)
Area-3: Probolinggo Regency and Situbondo Regency (offshore)
Area-4: Probolinggo Regency and Situbondo Regency (offshore)
Area-5: Probolinggo Regency and Situbondo Regency (offshore)
As of January 2011, approximately 20.58 MSTB of oil and gas has been produced by LBI from its two productive areas.
CITYGAS
The 2009 CITYGAS project by Lapindo supplies households in East Java with a steady supply of natural gas through a built in pipeline infrastructure to complement the Indonesian government's policy and gas initiative to reduce dependence on kerosene as an energy source. The project involved a contract with the Director General of Oil and Gas to sell 8MMSCFD of gas to "City Gas" to supply households in surrounding villages of Surabaya and to encourage the switch to LPG.
Lumpur Sidoarjo
After the Sidoarjo mud flow disaster, Lapindo Brantas took over responsibility in covering the cost of emergency response and victim resettlement, paying more than Rp. 5 trillion (approx. USD 550 million) despite its acquittal as the cause of the mudflow in 2009 by Indonesia's Supreme Court. Uncertainty surrounds the exact cause of the eruption, with scientists and geological experts unable to reach a unanimous conclusion. Some argue it was the result of drilling while others support the theory that its cause was a natural disaster linked to the reactivation of Mt. Semeru in nearby Yogyakarta.
The Constitutional Court may have been influenced by the National Budget which might have to bear a part of the disaster costs. In August 2012, a British team of geologists downplayed Lapindo's argument and concluded that the earthquake was not merely coincidental. The site used a quarter of the standard height of drilling wallpipe, while the earthquake was 275 kilometres (171 mi) away. While it could have generated a new fracture system and weakened strata surrounding the Banjar-Panji 1 well, it could not have been the cause of the formation of the hydraulic fracture that created the main vent 200 m (660 ft) away from the borehole. No other mud volcano was reported on Java after the earthquake. The intensity of the earthquake at the drilling site was estimated to have been only magnitude 2 on Richter scale, the same as a heavy truck passing through.
In June 2008, a report released by British, American, Indonesian, and Australian scientists concluded that the volcano was not a natural disaster, but the result of oil and gas drilling. Nevertheless, Indonesia's Agency for the Assessment & Application of Technology (BPPT) declared the mudflow to be a natural disaster, contradicting the previous investigation headed by Professor Rudi Rubiandini (former head of the investigative team, established by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry). In the previous assessment, he declared that the mud came from human error.
Claims that some mudflow victims have not been paid compensation as promised by Lapindo Brantas is still a matter of controversy due to disagreements over compensation packages and lack of documents to verify land ownership. As a result, mudflow victims often hold demonstrations to demand payments amidst the disaster's highly political climate.