JakartaPost-Sept 20
The government said it intends to carry out oil and gas exploration in the Warim block in Papua as planned, despite some of the land falling within the Lorentz National Park, a protected UNESCO World Heritage site. Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters on Tuesday that the ministerial office had coordinated with the Environment and Forestry Ministry to ensure developments of the oil field could commence in the future. “We’ve [including the environment ministry] discussed everything,” Luhut said. “Warim does have a little problem because it’s a protected forest but maybe they will [carry out] the drilling obliquely,” Luhut added. Luhut said state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina had been working to conduct exploration in the block. Warim holds a potential 25.968 billion barrels of oil and 47.37 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif said on May 16 that Warim would greatly help Indonesia achieve its production target of 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2030. However, Lorentz National Park is listed under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, where it is recognized as the largest protected area in Southeast Asia. The government also classified the land as a national park in 1997, which UNESCO regards as an area containing “an outstanding range of ecosystems, representative of the high level of biodiversity found across the region”. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2023/09/20/govt-to-proceed-with-oil-exploration-in-warim-block-in-papua.html.
