Wonocolo, one of the villages in Bojonegoro, East Java, is famous for its traditionally managed raw oil well mining area. They mine the crude oil with a simple equipment, using the drills that are stamped into the underground of 100 to 200 meters later driven using diesel engines or truck engines, which used to use human power.
This old mine has been around since the Dutch era, in that time raw oil management is carried out by the Dutch oil company. However, after the independence of mining activities in the region is carried out locals.
In the area there are about 700 old wells, raw oil yields are further deposited to Cepu’s crude production collection center and miners are rewarded by taking the crude oil. The majority of the production are traditionally dissolved by miners to be used as fuel oil (BBM).
Miner is pouring crude oil into the storage container in folk oil mining, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
People's oil mining facilities, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
This miner result oil is usually sold to farmers or locals for diesel fuel although the quality of oil is not as good as the quality of oil processed by Pertamina.
But naturally the production of oil from the old well can be ensured will experience a decrease, so that a time cannot be reproduced. Therefore, the area is currently developing into the first migas tourism in Indonesia named ‘Petroleum Geoheritage Wonocolo’ with the hope of tourists visiting the mine gained knowledge about mining especially the history of mining in Indonesia.
Photo and Text: Karu Zabur
The advantage of raw oil mining in folk oil mining, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
The miner makes the place of crude oil in the mining of folk oil, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
The miner controls the drill driven by the truck machine when conducting the mining process in the mining of folk oil, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
The mining person is in a truck used to drive the drill machine when conducting the mining process in the mining of folk oil, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
The miner pours the crude oil into the storage container in the folk oil mining, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
The miner shows the crude oil in the mining of the folk oil, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
One of the drills used for mining processes in folk oil mining, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
Miners take raw oil to move to storage containers in folk oil mining, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
The whole transports the jeriken containing crude oil in Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
Miners prepare ignition for raw oil purification process in folk oil mining, Wonocolo, Bojonegoro, East Java.
