600 old oil wells in South Sumatra remain inactive

At least 600 old oil wells in Musi Banyuasin regency, South Sumatra remain inactive due to the lack of interest from private companies to operate and manage the oil wells which were firstly found by Dutch oil companies during colonial era.

President director of PT Petro Muba, Robert Jerry said in Palembang on Tuesday that 90 of the 600 old oil wells were traditionally operated by local residents, while the remainders remained idle due to the lack of interest from investors.

According to him, Pertamina is still studying the feasibility of the old oil wells. "We hope that after the study we will know which of the oil wells are feasible enough for further exploration," he said, adding that the feasibility study was being conducted by the local regency administration in cooperation with the Bandung Institute of Technology.

The wells which are operated by the local residents produce only about 2.4 barrels of crude oil per day. The crude oil from the wells are processed by the villagers through a traditional technology. (*)