Leakages occur at ConocoPhillip's South Sumatra pipeline

Leakages occurred at several sections of PT ConocoPhillips' crude oil pipelines in South Sumatra on Sunday evening, causing panic to over 450 villagers living near by, but no casualties were reported.

Local newspaper Sriwijaya Post reported on Wednesday that the leakages occurred at seven segments of the pipeline, which transmits Conoco's crude oil from its field near Jambi to a processing plant in Palembang.

At least 10 houses had been emptied following the leakages but no casualties were reported. About 450 villagers in the affected areas suffered a shortage of clean water supply because the existing water sources including wells and rivers had been seriously polluted by the oil spills from the leaked pipes.

Conoco said that the leakages occurred because the pipelines, which it rent from state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, had been too old to be operated. "Repairs are underway, and Conoco also provides clean water to the affected villagers," the company's spokesman Iskandar said.

The leakages were at the least the third during the past three months. Conoco had said that it would no longer use the aging pipelines and sought for other means of transportation to deliver its crude oil to the processing plant in Palembang. (*)