Oil exploration hits fishermen in Indonesia's Aceh

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Oil exploration hits fishermen in Indonesia's Aceh

 

Tue Feb 27, 7:37 AM ET

 

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP) - Oil exploration has cost fishermen in

Indonesia's Aceh province more than two million dollars in income by

damaging their nets and fish traps, a regional community leader said

Tuesday.

 

Local councillor Adli Abdullah said surveying for oil and gas along

Aceh's eastern coast had damaged the fishing equipment, much of it

provided as aid for victims of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

 

" There was no prior warning from BP Migas to the local community, so

they had no time to move their fish nets and traps, " Abdullah told

AFP. BP Migas is the state oil and gas regulator.

 

Abdullah said 325 local fishermen had claimed about 20 billion rupiah

(2.2 million dollars) in losses.

 

He added he had yet to receive claims from fishermen in East Aceh, one

of the districts in the area.

 

BP Migas spokesman Amir Hamzah told the Kompas daily newspaper that he

had not received any reports that exploration activity had caused such

damage.

 

However, a fisherman, Munir, told Kompas that he had lost three fish

traps worth about 40 million rupiah.

 

" A boat, Zephyr I, handed us a flyer telling us to keep a two-mile

distance from a ship pulling an 8.5-kilometre (5.3-mile) steel cable

at a depth between three metres (nine feet) to eight metres, " he said

in the report.

 

But the warning had come too late for him, he added.

 

Aceh is one of Indonesia's most oil-rich provinces. Indonesia is

Southeast Asia's only member of the Organisation of Petroleum

Exporting Countries, but has become a net oil importer in recent years.