Fire Erupts at Illegal Oil Well in Indonesia
A fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. at a backyard well in a village in Aceh Province, on the northern tip of Sumatra Island on Wednesday, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. The erupted fire killed at least 18 people and injuring about 40 others, some of whom were badly burned. Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the state-owned oil company Pertamina sent teams to Aceh, which has industrial oil and gas operations, to investigate the incident. Since t his is a case of illegal drilling. Agung Pribadi, a ministry spokesman, said the well was being operated by local residents, adding that he was not sure if there were other illegal wells in the area. 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 arou...