PERTAMINA OIL SPILL

The world community faces unprecedented ecological challenges in the 21st century, including climate change, resource scarcity, and threats to biodiversity. A critical task in coming decades for government policymakers, civil society organizations, corporate leaders, and entrepreneurial innovators will be to find ways to meet simultaneously both economic and environmental goals.

PERTAMINA has been awarded two platinum awards in the CSR Award (ICA) 2017, and an Appreciation Award presented by Sindo News Media for conducting CSR in the same year. However, PERTAMINA is also linked to controversial cases, such as the devastating oil spill in Balikpapan Bay in 2018 due to a leaked oil pipe. This is not a surprising news, as PERTAMINA allegedly experienced a leak from its oil pipes previously, in the year of 2004 and 2017.

The PERTAMINA oil spill case in Balikpapan Bay causes multiple adverse impacts to the environment, the surrounding society, and to the business itself. The ecological damage itself is estimated to be US $8.27 billion. The spill is said to be Indonesia’s worst environmental disaster from the last ten years. How can PERTAMINA manage environmental and business sustainability by reducing ecological damages and promote sustainable development? More importantly, how can the government help impose laws, regulations, and sanctions to help support environmental sustainability?