How toxic century-old oil wells trap thousands of workers in Java
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00These oil wells are stuck in the past.
00:10And for over 100 years now.
00:14This has been the most lucrative job
00:16in this remote part of Indonesia,
00:19where the land has been ruined by toxic leaks.
00:26Workers risk their lives to extract the little that's left.
00:30But they don't even own that oil.
00:42They're forced to sell to the state company,
00:45which locals say barely pays them enough to get by.
00:52So why do these toxic old wells still exist?
00:57And how did thousands of people end up trapped
01:01working in them?
01:11Pani learned to extract oil when he was just 19.
01:16Now he is teaching his nephew.
01:18Many of the 700 oil wells near his village in East Java
01:30were built by the Dutch in the late 1800s.
01:37Nowadays, locals own most of them,
01:40but only about 200 still work.
01:42Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
01:46Pani always prays with his colleagues
01:48before starting his day.
02:05The basic tools they rely on are improvised and rustic.
02:13Like this engine they've removed from an old dump truck.
02:26They have to step on gas and brake pedals
02:28to dip and lift this pipe that goes in.
02:30It's called a baler.
02:32It has little holes in the side to let oil in and out.
02:40They need enough rope to lower the baler
02:42all the way down into the oil reserve.
02:48At this location, the crude is found about 1,000 tons.
02:53The crude is used to extract oil from the wells
02:56that are in the oil reserve.
03:00The baler is located about 1,000 feet below,
03:04a depth almost equal to the height
03:06of Indonesia's tallest building.
03:10When the baler hits the bottom,
03:12the holes open up inside, letting oil in.
03:15Then when the rope starts tugging up,
03:18the holes close, trapping the oil inside the tube.
03:23Pani uses this heavy iron rod to guide the baler down.
03:30This is how accidents happen.
03:42The whole process is messy.
03:47Pani says he sometimes wears a mask to protect himself
03:50from the liquid that sprays out.
03:56But what he fears most is a possible explosion.
04:01The equipment can overheat and catch fire.
04:04With all this oil around,
04:06an open flame can quickly spark an inferno.
04:10In June, a fire at another well in Sumatra
04:13killed four workers.
04:17It's also hard to maintain these wells over time.
04:21They're too narrow and far too deep
04:24for people to crawl in and fix from inside.
04:31If the pipe inside is cut, it's hard to fix.
04:36So in the end, we have to make a new one next to it.
04:44Sometimes, mud clogs up the well
04:47and prevents the baler from reaching the oil.
04:50The extracted oil runs off into these pools.
05:08In its crude form, it's mixed with mud and water.
05:12The oil floats to the top in a matter of minutes, and workers scoop it out.
05:19Pani's nephew, Joko Mulyono, helps.
05:29They use a vacuum to transfer the oil onto the car.
05:35About 200 years ago, before these oil wells existed, crude naturally oozed out of the
05:40ground here.
05:42Locals gathered small amounts to light lamps and make medicine.
05:47But in 1887, the Dutch, who colonized Indonesia, set up a large-scale drilling operation.
05:55Their oil company, Royal Dutch, managed many wells and refineries in East Java, and brought
06:01in workers who were paid low wages to help work for them.
06:07As demand for oil boomed around the world, drilling in Indonesia expanded too.
06:13And this land became unrecognizable.
06:17The Dutch left after Indonesia gained independence in 1945.
06:23But the oil that had leaked from the wells had already polluted the surrounding earth
06:27and water, making farming — the work that had sustained locals long before these wells
06:34existed — much harder.
06:37Extracting oil became the most lucrative work, but there wasn't nearly as much as before.
06:44When Pani started this job in 2004, they could draw up to 900 gallons from this well
06:49in a day.
06:51Now it takes him one week to get 55 gallons.
06:55There's more underground, but the well is too shallow to reach it.
07:00And Pani doesn't have the machinery to drill deeper.
07:05Even though workers own the land, the state-owned company, Pertamina, possesses the right to
07:10all the oil underground.
07:12So, by law, workers have to sell their oil to the company through a local government
07:17enterprise.
07:19But they often make more money selling it to off-the-radar refineries instead, where
07:25Pani can make $2 billion a year.
07:30Latest estimates from 2014 found that the state company was losing nearly $11 million
07:36annually to workers who sell their oil independently.
07:44Even after selling on the black market, workers still only make about $12 a week.
07:51Which is not a lot, even in this part of Indonesia.
07:55That's why most of the workers bring lunch from home, and share it with the others.
08:07Pani pays his daily wage with his own money.
08:12Vegetables and cassava.
08:19Pani pays his nephew, Joko, an additional $6 weekly to drive the oil to the refinery.
08:33That's become its own profession.
08:42It's a refinery, so we have to pay for the oil.
09:00Joko has been at it for 16 years now.
09:04He used to make around 10 trips a day, each for a different well owner.
09:09But that's dropped down to just four, or five on a busy day.
09:34Pani's neighbor, Jai Nuri, processes the oil at this artisanal refinery, using traditional techniques.
09:52He works 13-hour days, carrying 20-pound containers filled with crude,
09:58up and down these hills.
10:10He dumps them into these 60-gallon drums.
10:29First, Jai Nuri lights this underground furnace.
10:40He'll use it to heat the crude in this drum.
10:43He fills it halfway, to give it space to boil.
10:47It has to reach at least 570 degrees Fahrenheit before it starts evaporating,
10:53which is key to refining it.
10:56The vapor comes up through these pipes, which are cooled with water.
11:01That turns the vapor back into a liquid.
11:18They bring that refined fuel to the boiler and heat it once more,
11:23until it evaporates back through these pipes.
11:26Jai Nuri repeats this process three or four times to get different types of fuel,
11:31like gasoline and diesel.
11:48All day long, workers here are breathing these fumes,
11:52a combination of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide,
11:56which can cause cancer and brain damage.
12:00And if the gases get trapped underground, everything could explode.
12:13And an entire day's work only fetches about one drum of diesel.
12:18That's about enough to fill a car three times.
12:27Refineries are also required to sell their oil to Pertamina,
12:31but many sell at small black markets like this one.
12:39Locals buy oil for $2.27 per gallon.
12:44That's double what Pertamina would pay for it,
12:47although the price fluctuates based on global oil prices.
12:51The quality of the artisanal oil is inferior,
12:54so locals mostly use it to fuel the engines in their wells.
12:58Some also use it in their cars,
13:01because the nearest gas station is 60 miles away.
13:05That trip would cost them more in gas than they make in a day.
13:11Indonesia has enough oil reserves underground
13:14to power the entire country for at least four years.
13:18Still, it imports about half of the oil it consumes.
13:22And these artisanal workers aren't allowed to dig new wells on their own land.
13:28They could get all their oil extraction rights revoked.
13:32Instead, they have to allow large companies to drill on their property,
13:37a law the country passed in 2001
13:40to boost foreign investment and ramp up oil drilling.
13:44That year, ExxonMobil discovered an oil field nearby
13:48and soon signed on to help Pertamina develop it,
13:52buying out 3,000 small landowners first.
13:56The plant started extracting in 2008
14:00and now produces about 200,000 barrels annually,
14:04about a quarter of the country's oil output.
14:07But locals say what they really need from the government
14:11is funding for better machinery.
14:15So they can develop their fields themselves.
14:30So workers find ways to make do on their own,
14:33because they say they have to.
14:36They keep digging more wells like these
14:38to tap as many shallow reserves as they can.
14:44If you say it's illegal, then it's illegal.
14:46If you say it's not, then it's not.
14:48Because it's declining.
14:49The Dutch left it in the day of Daung.
14:51Because the Dutch left it to the locals.
14:55They hoped it would stay like this
14:59so they could manage the people.
15:02According to some estimates,
15:04output from illegally dug wells
15:06is outpacing production at the legal ones
15:09by about 10 barrels a day.
15:15Meanwhile, locals feel trapped in work that's damaged their land
15:20and now seems like their only option for a stable income.
15:45Pani's family grew mangoes here for generations.
15:49But for the last few years, his crops have kept dying.
16:15Still, he's grateful for every drop of oil he can get
16:19and that it's made it possible for his daughter to go to school
16:23and to have a better life than he did.
16:45Come on.
16:48Come on.