looked to Russia<\/a> to shore up oil supplies.<\/p>\n\u201cWe are actually happy when oil prices rise, because our income increases,\u201d said Mr. Sujiyanto, who has been working here for around 15 years.<\/p>\n
Next to his truck, three other men worked at separate stations. One sat inside a hut beside the pump, maneuvering it with a long wooden stick. Two others, equipped with buckets, scooped oil that had pooled around the well at the base of the derrick. For an hour, they worked in sync to collect the oil that totaled up to 200 liters, or a bit over a barrel. Then, they moved onto another well.<\/p>\n
These are not the only community-run oil wells in Indonesia. There are about 34,000 of these, not counting the few hundred in Wonocolo, according to government data. But Wonocolo stands out for its history and some savvy marketing. It is also known as Little Texas because the local government christened it Teksas Wonocolo, which is a nod to the U.S. state and stands for Tekad Selalu Aman dan Sejahtera, or \u201cAlways Safe and Prosperous.\u201d<\/p>\n
But like most community-run wells, those at Wonocolo are not registered with the government, said Afftaudin, the acting head of the East Java Energy and Mineral Resources Department. As a result, they are not subject to safety regulations and operate in a gray area.<\/p>\n
Five years ago, a miner was caught in a pulley rope while inspecting a well and died instantly, said Heri, a distiller who has worked in the field for 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a scary job,\u201d said Mr. Heri, who also uses one name.<\/p>\n
Many in the area work as distillers, boiling the crude in a furnace to separate out water and to sell the resulting unrefined diesel. Environmentalists worry about air and soil pollution, as well as the long-term effects on the health of the drillers.<\/p>\n
Pradipta Indra Ariono, the director of WALHI East Java, an environmental nonprofit group, said the oil industry at Wonocolo was a sign of the lack of jobs in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey dig for oil because there is no better option,\u201d Mr. Pradipta said.<\/p>\n
For decades, Suwoto, 73, has scraped residual oil from the river, gutter or puddles near the field. He collects crude remnants and boils them to separate oil and water. The oil is then skimmed off with a spatula and transferred into barrels. In a day, he can gather up to two jerrycans, or about 40 liters, which he sells for around $25.<\/p>\n
At night, Mr. Suwoto works as a security guard in the field. He said, \u201cI guard the mine from oil and machinery thieves.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Mujiyono, 70, the wells have been a source of income for three generations of his family. He grew up in the area, brought here by his parents as a child. Before old truck engines were introduced, he recalled, miners operated most pumps manually, with at least 10 people working together to pull the mechanism from underground.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround the 1990s, one well could produce up to 38 barrels of oil per day and run 24 hours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
About 800 wells are scattered across two villages, Wonocolo and Hargomulyo, with at least 200 still producing oil. Most of the crude drilled here is sold to the state oil company, Pertamina.<\/p>\n
But the oil reserves have been depleted over the years, Mr. Mujiyono said. Today, it can take a week to extract seven to eight barrels of crude from a single well, which sells for about 7.2 million Indonesian rupiah, or about $400, which is below the market rate. Most men here typically work across five to six wells and, in a good month, can earn up to $400.<\/p>\n
Over a decade ago, Sumanta, 64, began investing in abandoned wells. Now, he said, he can dig up oil to fill as many as 300 barrels a week, which he sells to Pertamina. He remains optimistic about Wonocolo\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to dig deeper,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Worried about the wells running dry, the government began an effort about a decade ago called Petroleum Geoheritage Wonocolo to promote tourism in the area. It built an observation tower, a museum and a hall for food vendors, but the initiative has largely languished.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had visitors before \u2014 most of them were university students or researchers,\u201d Mr. Suwoto said. The museum remains open, but it is also used as a rest stop by researchers and other travelers. The observation tower, when I visited, offered an arresting overview of the Wonocolo field paired with blue skies and black smoke coming from the wells. The food hall lay abandoned and the area was covered with weeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The old red truck\u2019s engine was jury-rigged to control a pump tied to a three-legged tower cobbled together…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,2183,237224,192634,90,56,54,55,165289,195313],"class_list":["post-716649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-indonesia","tag-java-indonesia","tag-oil-petroleum-and-gasoline","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wells","tag-workplace-hazards-and-violations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}