Scrapping The Black Gold
By wisnu broto
10 Jul 2007
Roaring diesel machine and screaming pulley are heard as a wire line raises up with crude oil mixed with water in the bucket. Latung, the local name for crude oil is processed traditionally using wire line powered by a modified old dump truck with the tire at the rear wheel had been dismantled. The driver just sit in the driving cabin all day, push the gas pedal then release it repetitively to go up and down the bucket into the 400 meters oil well.
In the other oil well, six workers walk forward about 500 meters as a sling wire and the bucket were pulled. The crude oil explored using human muscles is worse than the oil explored by the diesel machine because of its water contents. The more water mixed, the worse crude oil value.
In the next process, crude oil is separated from water by a simple gravitation settling in the small ponds, collected in the drums, then transferred to the main storage by people carried on their shoulder to be refined with a simple charcoal stove. Finally, the diesel fuel as a refinery result is ready to sell.
Wonocolo, a village in Kasiman District, Bojonegoro regency, East Java, Indonesia maybe the only one place in the world that produced oil by traditional mining operation and refinery with unique technology carried out in 130 years ago. The story begin with fortune. In last 18's, Adrian Stoop, the engineer of Dordsche Petroleum Maatschappij (DPM) a Dutch Oil Company operated in Indonesia fortunately found dark liquid split up from the cracked soil in the remote hills near the border Cepu and Bojonegoro. The Great Exploration for 'the black gold' was carried out and developed in the other districts in 1860.
Nowadays, still we find the same old unique technology unchanged. Wooden triangle towers, Roaring diesel machine from old dump truck, and groups of people pulling a wire still remain the same. The exploration is still continuous until the last black gold drops....
