Like The Hail, Pekanbaru's Gas Bursts Release Clump Of Soil And Damaging The Islamic Boarding School

Pekanbaru gas bursts damaged the facilities of the Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School in Tenayan Raya District

PEKANBARU - The bursts of natural gas during the last two days have not stopped and are getting worse. The gas bursts damaged the facilities of the Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School in Tenayan Raya District, Pekanbaru City, Riau.

The area of the Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School complex is now covered in mud, sand and gray ash. The main buildings, such as the students' dormitories, teachers' room, canteen, classrooms, and halls, were severely damaged by clump of hardened mud that flew from the well and hit the roof, causing holes. The ground around it was also full of sticky mud.

"Approximately after the evening prayer on Thursday night, the bursts got worse in the form of large lumps of earth, like a rain of rocks, the sound was very noisy. Because of this the buildings were damaged like this," said a teacher at the Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School, Khairudin Damanik, quoted by Antara, Friday, February 5.

The gas burst incident began when the management of Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School employed well diggers to find water sources in the complex. Tenayan Raya Subdistrict is an area where it is difficult to get water from artesian wells, so the people there have to drill the ground up to tens or even more than 100 meters.

When the excavation process reached around 119 meters on Thursday, February 4, at around 14.00 WIB, suddenly gas burst out of the well to a height of 15 meters.

Dozens of students from the Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School, Tenayan Raya District, Pekanbaru City, have been evacuated due to the burst of natural gas.

Khairudin said that initially the bursts were only in the form of gas and ash, but at night they were also in the form of hard material that destroyed the Boarding School building.

"The bursting lasted until almost midnight. After that it subsided, and on Friday dawn black sand came out and in the morning the gas burst was mixed with mud," he said.

Head of the Riau Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Agency, Indra Agus Lukman, said that his party was still monitoring the condition because it could not just shut off the gas jet which was still quite strong.

"What we are doing right now is mitigation, namely the santri and the community around here are moved and prohibiting other residents from approaching," he said.

He said that efforts to prevent gas bursts would be carried out by an integrated team consisting of the local government, Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities of North Sumatera (SKK Migas Sumbagut), and gas company EMP Bentul Ltd.

Meanwhile, Act Area Manager of EMP Bentu Ltd., Zulfan, said the gas burst had nothing to do with the EMP Bentu gas facility and well. The gas burst point is 180 meters from the EMP Bentu gas pipe, and one kilometer from the EMP Bentu gas well. The last drilling was in 2004, and production ended in 2013.

"Since the location is not far from EMP Bentu, EMP Bentu has coordinated with the Agency of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) of Riau Province to help by taking action," he said.

EMP Bentu officers at the location, he continued, helped measure the Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) and H2S concentrations at the burst site.

"The gas has the potential to burn if triggered and is also poisonous," he said.

His party has instructed the management of the Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School to isolate the burst area and prohibit anyone from approaching, and EMP Bentu has installed barricades and monitored LEL and H2S periodically every six hours.