Indonesian Oil

May 2007

Native owned and producing oil

wells on the island of Java, near
CEPU
Photos and story by Allen Johnston
• The Javanese are a very friendly,
industrious and resourceful people.

• The oil wells that you will see have been

around for decades. The National Oil
Company dug the wells originally and when
they played out, they left.

• The locals took over the abandoned wells

and have come up with an ingenious way to
make use of what is left in the reservoirs.

• I have never seen anything like it anywhere

else.
• They first find an abandoned well with the
casing still intact.

• They erect a wooden derrick over the well

head.

• The wells still seep oil, but very slowly. Over

a 24 hour period, there will be a window of
about 4 hours where enough oil has seeped
into the well to exploit. After that time, there
is too much water downhole and they have
to wait for the next day.
• Notice the old
truck body. The
engine is used
to pull the cable
with the dipping
bucket up and
down the well.

• This is a high
end rig. It
actually has a
running engine.
‘Rig Supervisor’ directing
the catch tube with a mix of
oil and water to the
drainage ditch where it will
dump.

You can see the oil/water

mix start down the ditch to
the separator.
• One of the better off wells.
This one has an old truck
engine mounted to the right
in the lean to. The guy on
the right (near the engine)
runs the engine and shifts
its’ transmission with his
bare toes. The other guy
runs the winch.

• They sit there and chat and

smoke cigarettes with all
that crude oil around
them……
• Another picture of the ‘Rig
Supervisor’ dumping the
contents of the catch tube
into the trough. The slurry
will flow downhill to the
‘Separation Plant’
• The SEPARATOR. This is where the slurry
from the capture bucket is sent. It dumps
from the bucket and follows a ditch to this pit
where the men allow the oil and water to
separate. The oily water is thrown downhill.
What crude they can capture is poured into
8 gallon buckets which are carried two to a
pole coolie style by a worker to the ‘refinery’.
• This is where the runoff from
the separator unit goes. It has
been approved by Al Gore…
• The Pipeline
from well
head to the
refinery…
• These guys work for
another, less well funded
operation. They don’t have
an ancient truck motor which
is shifted by one barefoot
native. This is the Javanese
version of the Top Drive Unit
(Javanese 12-Leg TDU).

• They are actually the winch

motor for the cable and
bucket on the next well
down.
• A view of the
‘Refinery’ from the
well head. Each well
has its’ own distillation
unit.
• The ‘Refinery’. What you see here is a
crude pipestill. Buried in the earth above the
fire is a 55-gallon drum. You can see the
outline of the lid at the top of the picture. The
lid is uncovered, crude is poured into the
drum then it is recovered and sealed with a
clay that is hand (foot) mixed.

• Once it is sealed, the wood fire below brings

the crude up to temperature until it starts to
‘crack’, or separate into vapors.
• This guy is the refining
engineer. He monitors the
heating of the pipe still and
watches for a certain vapor to
start appearing in a small
opening they have made in the
top of the drum and clay seal.

• He watches the vapor, rubs it

with his fingers and feels for
what I don’t know, then puts
the metal cap over the vapor
area. The cap directs the
vapors into a pipe that is
submerged in the pool on the
right. That is the heat
exchanger / cooling tower.
• This little guy is about 150 years
old. He stands in a pit (right
behind him) and just walks up and
down, mixing water with clay. The
clay mixture is placed on top of the
drum to contain and direct the
vaporization.
• The little old gentleman. Mixing the clay for
the drum seal.
• Another view of the pipestill.
The ‘refining engineer’ has
placed the top cap on the sealed
drum lid and is forcing the
vapors to enter the cooling pipe
(under the water on the bottom
right).

• Notice the cottony vapor that is

escaping from the bottom of the
top cap. That is vaporized
carbon molecules. You can see
where they spilled some crude
as they filled the drum. But I am
sure that Al has approved it.
• A better picture of the vapors before the cap
is put on.
• Pak Johnny inspecting the heat
exchanger.

• The vapors enter the

submerged pipe at the bottom
of the picture, travel about 20ft
to the other end, where they
condense into Diesel. I am told
that they can recover about
80% of the original crude as
diesel.

• The diesel is sold to local

farmers to run equipment.
• Some of the product going to the market.
They carry everything on those motorcycles.
Up to and including goats and calves.
THE END