Fire erupts at illegal oil well in Indonesia

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Agung said the well was being operated by local residents, adding that he was not sure if there were other illegal wells in the area.

Lieutenant Colonel Wahyu Kuncoro, chief of the East Aceh district police, told reporters at the scene that firefighters were trying to “break the chain of oxygen” in the well to stop the fire. He confirmed the well operation was illegal, but he said many villagers depended on it for their livelihood.

Illegal well operations are common in Indonesian regions where oil is present, including on the islands of Sumatra and Java. In some cases, the wells were abandoned by the Dutch colonial administration that once ruled Indonesia, and are now run by groups of villagers working around the clock.

“Oil doesn’t come up to the surface easily in these old wells, so they try to pump it up manually, then try to separate the oil by distillation in barrels, and that’s where they probably had the fire,” said Mangantar Marpaung, former chief of the Indonesian Mining Fire and Rescue Agency.

“Then they sell it as kerosene to the local market, or for motorcycles and fishing boats,” he said. “Those are their customers. The local governments know, but because they can’t provide any other jobs, they look the other way.”