Council finds no environmental damage from gas blowout at TotalFinaElf?s field

A team of various commissions from the Kutai Kertanegara legislative council in East Kalimantan found no serious environmental damage from the recent gas blowout at oil and gas firm TotalFinaElf?s exploration well on the Tunu field in the province?s Mahakam Delta area.

The Mahakam Block is operated by TotalFinaElf Exploration and Production Indonesie in a 50:50 percent partnership with Inpex.

The local Kaltim Post daily said that the legislative team visited the location of the gas blowout on Thursday.

?Plants near the rig are not even wilted, all are still green. While the settlement of villagers are locate quite a far from the location of the fire,? said deputy speaker of the council M. Rusmin, dismissing reports saying that there had been evacuation of people from nearby villages.

A couple of non-governmental organizations had earlier said that the gas blowout would cause serious environmental harm and cause losses to local shrimp farmers. The NGOs demanded the oil and gas firm to provide compensation.

The Bapedalda environmental watchdog, according to a previous report, had launched a survey. But the agency had yet to give its assessment.(*)