Drilling Blamed For Displacement of 30,000 People

I know it’s hard to keep up with all the natural disasters that seem to be occurring across the globe lately (Myanmar, China, Iowa), but there’s at least one that critics are now saying the earth had nothing to do with—humans could be at fault.

A mud volcano in East Java, Indonesia that erupted over two years ago continues to spew hot black sludge at 3.5 million cubic feet a day. Over 30,000 people have been displaced from their homes, millions of dollars in damages have accrued, and the area’s ecosystems and landscape are altering in unforeseen ways. An earthquake was originally theorized as the cause for the mudflow, but a team of scientists now feels confident that an oil/gas company is the culprit.

Professor Richard Davies of Durham University, UK, argued in January of 2007 that a well being drilled in the region could have triggered Lusi, the mud volcano, to erupt on May 29, 2006. The company in question, Lapindo Brantas, denied the charges, insisting the Yogyakarta earthquake that occurred two days before hand caused the disaster.

Graduate student Maria Brumm and Prof Michael Manga of the University of California, Berkely recently took Davies’ research to task, finding that there was no way the earthquake could have played a role. Other scientists from America, Indonesia, Australia, and England aided in the report to be published later this week in the academic journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. It concludes that the effect of the earthquake was minimal because not only was it too far away (with the epicenter 250km from the volcano to be exact), but the change in pressure it formed underground would have been too small. The scientists say they are “99% certain” that drilling operations are to blame.

Prof. Davies was quoted in ENN:

“We show that the day before the mud volcano started there was a huge ‘kick’ in the well, which is an influx of fluid and gas into the wellbore. We show that after the kick the pressure in the well went beyond a critical level.”

“This resulted in the leakage of the fluid from the well and the rock formations to the surface — a so called ‘underground blowout’.”

Lapindo Brantas says it’s ready to debate the team’s scientific research, currently compiling evidence from other scientists arguing plate tectonics are the cause.

While the blame game lingers on, the government continues to find ways to cap off Lusi, and has already demanded Lapindo pay half of the estimated $844 million in damages.