The Jakarta Post
Friday, April 4, 2008
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
The Youtefa Bay tourist site in Jayapura is being threatened by sedimentation and pollution from household and industrial waste, says the head of a local environmental agency.
"Youtefa Bay is comparable to a garbage dump," Jayapura environmental impact control agency head Jan Hendrik Hamadi told The Jakarta Post recently.
"Apparently, no one has assessed in detail the volume of waste that ends up in Youtefa Bay, but noticeably most of the residents dump their garbage into the rivers that end in the bay area."
Four rivers empty into Youtefa Bay, all of which carry household garbage and hazardous waste produced by automotive workshops and hospitals, as well as building materials like sand and gravel from increasing construction in Jayapura.
"The bay was very pristine once, but now it has become a dump for plastic waste, being virtually littered with plastic everywhere," said Hamadi, who grew up in nearby Tobati village.
The bay is home to Jayapura's indigenous Tobati people, who live in a number of surrounding villages. Spanning 1,675 hectares, Youtefa was designated a tourist area through a Forestry Ministry decree in November 1996.
"This city asset and the indigenous people of Jayapura will likely disappear without quick action by the government and people's awareness in preventing sedimentation in the bay," Hamadi said.
He said residents were experiencing increasing difficulty in obtaining fish and other seafood like shellfish in Tobati and Injros villages, adding that what they did catch was often contaminated.
"No one wants to live in an environmentally damaged area any longer due to the loss of living resources, and people will naturally move to another more promising place," said Hamadi.
Many people have also complained of itchiness after swimming in the bay, and the huge volume of plastic waste.
The Jayapura municipality, through the environmental impact control agency, has carried out a public awareness campaign to exhort the public to refrain from dumping waste into the rivers and to set up waste nets to prevent garbage from entering the bay.
"However, it has not been optimal due to limited funds," Hamadi said.
Youtefa Bay is also a World War II historical site.
"There are 16 Japanese warship wrecks in the bay, sunken by Allied forces during World War II," said Hamadi.
Many remnants left by Japanese soldiers, such as chinaware and samurai swords, have been found in the Youtefa Bay area. During the war, the Japanese occupation force set up its naval base at Weref Hill due to its strategic cliffside location.
Jakarta, 1 April (AKI) A coalition of more than 30 human rights organisations has warned that a six-billion dollar natural gas project could lead to further political instability
in the Indonesian province of Papua.
Global energy conglomerate, BP, was given approval from the Indonesian government to develop the Tangguh Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Bintuni Bay in eastern Papua in March 2005.
The project is expected to become operational towards the end of 2008.
The Tangguh fields contain around 14.4 trillion cubic feet of gas and BP is the lead contractor with a 37 percent stake in the project.
In a letter to the British company's chief executive, Tony Hayward, the human rights groups stressed the need for independent external scrutiny of the BP operation.
They also highlighted reports of increased activity by the Indonesian military (TNI) in the area of the project.
"The TNI's past record suggests that it is likely to adopt a highly intimidatory approach, giving rise to possible conflicts with the local and wider Papuan community," the coalition said in a statement.
The protest letter was prompted by BP's decision not to extend the mandate of the Tangguh Independent Advisory Panel (TIAP).
Although it purports to be independent, TIAP was set up by BP. It advises on non-commercial aspects of the project and is chaired by former US Senator, George Mitchell.
In their letter, the organisations said that the project was regarded by some Papuans as an obstacle to the realisation of their wider political aspirations and that BP was seen as a collaborator in Jakarta's exploitation of Papua's natural resources.
Papua is among Indonesia's richest provinces in terms of its resources, although the standard of living of the local population remains among the lowest in the archipelago.
It was annexed by Indonesia after a controversial UN-sponsored referendum in 1975. The region has been the centre of a peaceful independence movement.
The letter was sent by the human rights groups in the wake of a wave of arrests this month of Papuans peacefully protesting against a ban on regional symbols such as the Papuan Morning Star flag.
Most of the arrests took place in nearby Manokwari, the capital of the province in which Tangguh is located. Those arrested are expected to be charged under Indonesia's draconian anti-subversion laws. If convicted, they could face prison sentences of up to 20 years.
The letter lists a number of other concerns relating to the social and environmental impacts of the project.
Earlier this month, a large number of troops were deployed in the area to provide security for a visit to the project by Prince Andrew, the UK government's business envoy.
BP Indonesia is one of the largest foreign investors in the country, having invested around 5 billion dollars to date.
According to the company website, the land acquired for the Tangguh processing facility measures 3,200 hectares, much of which will remain a 'green zone'. When fully operational, the facility will employ 500 people.
The first gas to be exported from Tangguh is due in 2009 and is expected to supply the LNG to customers as far as Korea, China and North America.
Pengelolaan lingkungan adalah salah satu program kerja yang dilakukan PT Freeport Indonesia ( PTFI). Pengelolaan tailing atau pasir sisa tambang dan reklamasi telah dilakukan dengan baik di wilayah kerja perusahaan. Namun ternyata, PTFI juga peduli dengan apa yang terjadi di luar wilayah kerjanya.
Pelestarian satwa asli Papua misalnya. PTFI telah berhasil mengembalikan Labi-labi Moncong Babi ( Carretochelys insculpta) dan Kangguru Tanah ( Thylogale brunii) ke habitatnya di Tanah Papua.
Satwa-satwa endemik Papua itu semula diselundupkan ke luar Papua. Bahkan Labi-labi Moncong Babi yang hidungnya mirip hidung Babi, akan diselundupkan ke Taiwan dan China sebagai bahan makanan di negara-negara tersebut.
Setelah bekerjasama denngan Balai Konservasi dan Sumber Daya Alam (BKSD) Papua dan Pusat Penyelamatan Satwa Cikananga, Sukabumi, Jawa Barat, PT Freeport Indonesia pada Agustus 2006 telah memulangkan 2.930 ekor Labi-labi Moncong Babi yang telah dilepasliarkan di perairan Mimika. Sementara untuk Kangguru Tanah, telah dipulangkan ke Papua dan dilepasliarkan di taman nasional Wasur, Merauke sebanyak 21 ekor.
Selain labi-labi moncong babi, PT Freeport Indonesia juga memfasilitasi pengembalian 21 ekor kanguru tanah ke habitat aslinya di Taman Nasional Wasur, Merauke, Papua.
Hewan- hewan asal Merauke itu, semula ditemukan di Bogor, Bandung dan Jakarta dalam razia yang dilakukan Departemen Kehutanan dengan bekerjasama dengan Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) dan Kepolisian Republik Indonesia (Polri). Lima ekor kangguru yang saat itu tertangkap, dipelihara sementara di Pusat Penyelamatan Satwa Cikananga (PPSC), Sukabumi, Jawa Barat dan berkembang biak menjadi 22 Ekor. Dengan bantuan Departemen Lingkungan PTFI, ke 22 ekor Kanguru tersebut berhasil dikembalikan ke Papua.
Setelah mengalami masa rehabilitasi beberapa bulan di Kampung Nayaro, Timika, kangguru-kangguru tersebut diberangkatkan dengan pesawat Garuda dari Timika ke Jayapura. Kemudian dengan pesawat Merpati diterbangkan dari Jayapura ke Merauke pada 11 Desember 2007 lalu. Kedatangan kawanan hewan marsupial itu disambut secara resmi oleh Pemda Merauke yang dipimpin langsung Bupati Drs. John Guba Gebze, termasuk puluhan warga suku Marid, pemilik ulayat daerah tersebut dengan tari-tarian adat.
Di samping itu, PTFI juga telah melakukan sejumlah besar kajian ekologi dan keaneragaman hayati di dalam wilayah proyek PTFI dalam rangka kemudahan pengelolaan keanekaragaman hayati secara efektif.
Kajian itu dilakukan bersama para pakar dari Indonesia maupun luar negeri, yang mencakup juga survei terhadap tumbuh-tumbuhan, etno-botani, tanaman obat-obatan, mamalia, burung, hewan amfibi, reptilia, ikan, fauna tanah, dan serangga air maupun darat. Sebagian besar karya tersebut dapat langsung diterapkan dan tersedia bagi peneliti yang ditugaskan untuk mengembangkan rencana pengelolaan Taman Nasional Lorenz.
Program keanekaragaman hayati PTFI telah memberikan kontribusi yang signifikan bagi ilmu pengetahuan alam Papua di Papua melalui penemuan spesies baru, koleksi bahan acuan, serta penerbitan karya tulis, buku dan poster ilmiah.
PTFI melalui program tersebut juga telah mendukung sejumlah besar penelitian tentang keanekaragaman hayati di Papua, dengan koordinasi bersama beberapa LSM dan Pemerintah Indonesia. Hal ini termasuk ekspedisi yang terkenal, yaitu ekspedisi Conservation Internasional ke wilayah Pegunungan Foja, Papua pada tahun 2006 lalu. Ekspedisi ini menghasilkan penemuan sejumlah besar spesies baru tanaman, burung, katak, serangga dan mamalia. (Lucky Ireeuw)
RNZI Posted at 03:18 on 26 February, 2008 UTC
A separatist leader from the Indonesian province of Papua says the British energy giant, BP, should not open a gas plant in the region this year.
The London-based Kotega Tribal Chairman, Benny Wenda, says he doesn’t recognise BP’s deal with the Indonesian government.
Hundreds of homes in the Bintumi Bay area have been relocated for the Tangguh project and specially trained local police are set to patrol the site.
But Mr Wenda says the development will not be sustainable.
“West Papua is the earth and forest, and sea, and this is all, you know, what we call our supermarket and our mother. So now BP will operate in West Papua, this is another genocide toward earth and animal, wildlife and all the species. This is not Indonesia’s land. This is land of West Papuan people; they have to deal with West Papuans.”
Benny Wenda. BP hopes to pump the first liquified natural gas from Tangguh in October.
latts Commodity News
February 26, 2008
Indonesia is hopeful it will be able to revise higher its price for Tangguh LNG supplies to South Korean buyers K-Power and Posco after the two companies expressed a willingness to
renegotiate the original contract at a recent meeting, a senior official at upstream regulator BP Migas said Monday.
"We want to improve our LNG contract with the South Korean buyers, like we did with [China's] CNOOC. The current oil price ceiling for the South Koreans is the same as it was for CNOOC at $25/barrel. We want to increase that to as high as possible," Kardaya Warnika, BP Migas' chairman, said.
BP and CNOOC had agreed in 2006 to amend the sale and purchase agreement for supply of Tangguh LNG into China's Fujian province. CNOOC agreed to raise the LNG purchase price to around
$3.4-3.5/MMBtu from $2.6/MMBtu on an FOB basis with the crude price ceiling in the formula increased to $38/b from the $25/b set in the original contract signed in 2002. BP and CNOOC have also agreed to review the LNG price every four years if the price of oil rises significantly.
The Tangguh LNG project being developed by a BP-led consortium in West Papua's Bintuni Bay is based on 14.4 Tcf of proven gas reserves in three neighboring production sharing contracts: Berau, Muturi and Wiriagar.
It is setting up an LNG plant with an initial liquefaction capacity of 7.6 million mt/year over two trains. The total estimated development cost is $5 billion.
BP has said it expects to start processing LNG at the end of 2008. A senior Indonesian official recently said that the first LNG shipment was expected in March 2009.
The project has agreements to supply 2.6 million mt/year of LNG to CNOOC Limited, 550,000 mt/year to South Korea's Posco and 600,000 mt/year to K-Power. It has a preliminary deal to supply 120,000 mt/year to Japan's Tohoku and has also committed to sell to US' Sempra Energy 3.6 million mt/year for marketing in North America.
The equity distribution in the Tangguh LNG project is as follows: BP (37.16%), MI Berau (16.30%), Nippon Oil Exploration (12.23%), KG Berau/KG Wiriagar (10%), LNG Japan Corp. (7.35%)
and Talisman (3.06%). --Anita Nugraha, newsdesk@platts.com
By Steve James
NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Chief Executive Richard Adkerson says he has built the world's
largest publicly traded copper company without bluffing or nickel-and-diming.
"I don't have a poker face," he told Reuters in an interview when asked about deal-making in the hot metals sector. "People
can sit in a room and know how I feel about things."
His straightforward approach and strong work ethic -- the byproducts of growing up in small-town America -- are the main
reasons Adkerson, 61, sits in the corner office at Freeport-McMoRan after pulling off a stunning $26 billion
acquisition of larger U.S. rival Phelps Dodge last year.
That deal immediately gave the company a portfolio of mines in Nevada, Peru, Australia, New Zealand and Africa to position
alongside their crown jewel -- the vast Grasberg mine in Indonesia.
It also served as a prelude to the major consolidation trend in mining that continues this year on record prices for gold,
copper and other metals. BHP Billiton threatens to eclipse the size of the Freeport-Phelps deal with an offer to buy Rio Tinto
for $147.4 billion. And Vale is weighing an offer for Xstrata which could more than triple the value of the Phelps deal.
Since the Phelps deal closed in March of 2007, bullish markets for Freeport's copper, gold and other mining byproducts sparked
a 77 percent increase in its stock price to $99 a share -- a huge jump from the $17 value on the stock five years ago. It's a
track record his peers applaud.
"I have a lot of admiration for how he runs his business and how he's created value over the years," said Tom Albanese, Chief
Executive of Rio Tinto, who has worked with Adkerson since the two companies formed a joint venture in 1995.
"He is a very effective businessman, and the results certainly demonstrate that," Albanese told Reuters.
RECORD PRICES FUEL DEALS
The takeover thrust in mining is driven by commodity supply shortages, which have mixed with strong demand to push prices to
record highs. Adkerson, who began his career as an accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co, said these dynamics make
consolidation "inevitable."
"You have a situation where companies have generated so much cash through high commodity prices, and investment opportunities
are limited," he said in a measured Southern drawl, adding that a CEO with a merger mentality is a necessity.
"The days of having a manager who is totally technically oriented, who's not versed in the financial marketplace ... I
don't think you can be that way."
The key to success at the negotiating table, Adkerson noted, is not allowing the smaller details to detract from sealing the
deal. It's a lesson he learned from James "Jim-Bob" Moffett, Freeport's chairman, whom he has known for years.
"When you decide to do a deal, the most important thing is to get the deal done, not necessarily to trade for the best deal
that is there," he said. "You want to get the best terms you can, but too often people let deals get away from them."
Winning the trust of the other side is key, Adkerson said. "I've found that if you're up-front with people and honest,
straightforward and candid, that you can gain people's trust. Then you can find common ground."
MISSISSIPPI ROOTS
Adkerson's skills in finding common ground were honed in his hometown in Mississippi. Whether studying mathematics or working
in his parents' store, playing high-school football with Elvis Presley's cousins in Tupelo or as a national merit scholar at
Mississippi State University (MSU), Adkerson's psyche was steeped in America's post-World War II promise of unlimited
possibility.
His parents grew up on farms in west Tennessee and his father wound up managing department stores in small Southern towns.
"I think the first time I worked in a store, I was eight years old. I was part of that generation where the world was changing
and there was an expectation and an opportunity for people to have higher paying jobs and higher paying standard of living
than your parents," the executive said.
"I'm right in there with George Bush and Bill Clinton and Jimmy Buffett ... the first baby-boomers," he said with a laugh.
He has stayed true to his humble beginnings, according to Bill Simmons, a retired accounting professor who taught Adkerson at
Mississippi State, where the executive is now president of the University Foundation Board.
"If you ran into him, you wouldn't think he had a dime. He's just an ordinary guy who has not got a big head at all," said
Simmons, who called Adkerson his best student in a 39-year teaching career.
Starting as an accountant in the oil and gas business before landing a job with Freeport in 1989, Adkerson could hardly have
imagined he would one day be involved in a multibillion-dollar deal involving mining giants. Or that, in just four years' time,
a global industrial building boom would push copper up to over $4 per pound, from 60 cents.
Having worked through the ups and downs of the oil and gas business from the 1970s and now the recent metals boom, he is
reluctant to predict prices. "People were predicting $100 oil in 1979-80; then oil went to $10 a barrel," he noted.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Adkerson, the father of three grown sons, has kept his home in New Orleans after the new company's headquarters moved to
Phoenix, Arizona. His house has been the target of protests by workers and environmentalists, who claim the company's mines --
particularly Grasberg -- have damaged local communities and ecosystems.
The Grasberg complex in Indonesia, one of the world's largest gold and copper mining operations, has also drawn controversy
due to the share of revenue going to native Papuans and the legality of payments to Indonesian security forces who help
guard the site.
Just like in negotiating a multibillion deal, Adkerson is keen to find common ground.
"In a lot of ways at the core of their views, I certainly do (share their views)," he said, adding that much of his free time
is spent outdoors hiking, hunting and fishing. "So it may sound ironic that you've got a guy involved in the mining industry
feeling that he wants to protect the environment."
He said environmental issues were important to Freeport's operations, not only the current effects of mining, but also
dealing with the environmental consequences of operations from years ago.
"The challenge with these environmental groups is that while many people are well-intentioned, they either are emotionally
driven or they don't have the technical understanding of how management of environmental issues needs to be dealt with."
Dealing with protests is part of the huge responsibility of heading a global mining company, Adkerson says. But when it
comes to pressure, the CEO said that sitting at the helm of the metals giant still ranks behind playing center for his high
school football team in Mississippi -- a state where football is "an obligation."
"I made a bad snap (pass) one night and we lost the game, and it was the headline in the paper the next day. So that was great
training," he laughed. (Additional reporting by Euan Rocha and Edward Tobin; editing by Gunna Dickson)
I will share my freedom,I will share my freedom,with all off you!!..I will share my freedom with all off you who feels free!!.....I will share my freedom also who not feels free!!.... And thats I will figth,to let everybody feels FREE!!!...
Jakarta Post, 22 Febuary 2008
JAYAPURA (Antara): PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) and Papua's provincial government are set to build a cement factory using the giant US-based copper and mining company's tailings waste as feedstock, a PTFI spokesman said.
The cement factory project would be carried out based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu and PTFI President Director Armando Mahler some time ago, PTFI spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan said Wednesday.
"The aim of building the factory is to help process PTFI's tailings into cement products. Actually, some of PTFI's tailings are already being used in various projects in Timika. The waste can also be used in other places for infrastructure development," he said.
Mindo did not mention the details of the project, saying these matters were up to the provincial government to decide.(*)
JAKARTA, Feb 4 (AFP) -- The local Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport said Monday that it paid the government here 1.8 billion dollars in 2007 amid soaring commodity prices and solid production.
Freeport said that besides the amount paid for corporate income tax, employee income tax, regional taxes and levies, it also paid 216 million in dividends and 164 million dollars in
royalties to the government.
The annual amount was 12.5 percent up on the 1.6 billion dollars the company, which is believed to be Indonesia's most significant taxpayer, paid in 2006, it said in a statement.
The payment amount fluctuates due to changes in commodity prices, sales and metal production levels.
Freeport said it had paid a total of 6.9 billion dollars to Jakarta from 1992 to 2007, in line with fulfilling its financial obligations under a 1991 contract with the Indonesian government.
"In the past two years our production has been good and commodity prices have also skyrocketed," Mindo Pangaribuan, a Freeport spokesman, told AFP.
Freeport Indonesia is 81 percent owned by US-based Freeport McMoRan. The remaining stakes are shared equally between the Indonesian government and company Indocopper Investama.
Freeport operates a huge gold and copper mine in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province.
Environmentalists have accused the mine of polluting the World Heritage-listed Lorenz National Park and dumping copper-rich ore around the edge of its operations. The firm disputes the claims.
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