VP MAKES IMPROMPTU VISIT TO LAPINDO MUD VOLCANO

Surabaya, East Java, June 9 (ANTARA) - Vice President M Jusuf Kalla made an impromptu visit to the location of the Lapindo bubbling mud volcano in Siring village, Sudiardjo district, East Java, on Tuesday.

The villagers were quite surprised when the vice president and his entourage arrived at the location accompanied by local administration officers but not by PT. Minarak Lapindo officials.

To take a close look at the bubbling mud, Kalla climbed on a dam that was built to protect the mud from flowing to the Gempol Kerep sugar factory.

During his 15-minutes visit, the vice president also talked with local residents in the company of East Java Vice Governor Syaefullah Yusuf.

Once a densely populated region, most of the land in Siring and nearby villages has been consumed by an unstoppable "mud volcano" that may have been caused by a gas- and oil-drilling project.

It is difficult to imagine that farmers in this part of Sidoarjo district of East Java were planting rice and sugar cane before the disaster. Workers in small factories were producing watches, liquor, furniture and shoes, and the area's villages consisted of narrow lanes and small houses made of stone, concrete and wood. Residents grew bananas in their backyards and carefully tended small but lush gardens.

Those residents would still want to be living here if it weren't for the fact that their villages have now acquired the disastrous nickname of "Pompei." Some even call the area "Ground Zero."
The oil and gas exploration company Lapindo Brantas also had an operation in the region. It had constructed a drilling rig only 500 meters (1,640 feet) from nearby houses, an arrangement that was completely legal under Indonesian law.

Lapindo engineers drove their drills to a depth of almost 3,000 meters (9,840 feet), into what is known as the "Kunjung formation," where they hoped to find oil and, more importantly, natural gas. Indeed, oil and gas were exactly what they had already found at 15 other drilling locations in the wider surrounding area.

What happened then may have been a natural phenomenon. Perhaps it was simply the primeval force of nature, against which human beings are powerless, that unfolded in Sidoarjo.

But many say otherwise, speculating that Lapindo's drilling activities were responsible for the ensuing disaster. They claim that it was irresponsible of the company to tear a wound into the geological bowels of the earth at such great depths. As a result, the earth has been incontinent since May 29, 2005.