JAKARTA – Incidents of casualties in geothermal development in Sorik Marapi, Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra are in the spotlight. Moreover, the incidence of casualties in geothermal development is the first in the country. The better geothermal investment climate that the government is building is being threatened.

Prijandaru Effendi, Chairman of the Indonesian Geothermal Association (API), said that the incident in Sorik Marapi, which killed several people and was treated at the hospital, naturally made all parties sad and concerned.

The geothermal industry always applies occupational safety and environmental standards strictly and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Prijandaru also asked all parties not to fish in the murky water and wait for the results of the investigation being carried out by the government.

“So that all parties are asked not to speculate about what happened and do things that can make the atmosphere worse,” said Prijandaru when contacted by Dunia Energi, Monday (1/2).
He is optimistic that the incident will not have a significant impact on the investment climate or geothermal development in the country.

“InshaAllah, this disaster will not affect the investment climate. Of course, all geothermal developers will learn this expensive and very valuable lesson to continue to carry out safety and environmental programs prudently and without compromise,” said Prijandaru.
He hopes that the results of the investigation carried out by the EBTKE Directorate can be released soon so that there is no confusion in information that develops in the community.

“Hopefully the results of the investigations can be released immediately by EBTKE so that we can know exactly what happened so that we can all learn this expensive and valuable lesson so that we can prevent calamities like this from happening again in the future,” said Prijandaru.

Geothermal Power Plant (PLTP) operated by PT Sorik Marapi Geothermal Power (SMGP). Currently, the development of Sorik Marapi PLTP Unit II has been temporarily halted due to an incident of a community suspected of being exposed to H2S gas while the SM T02 well discharge activity is being carried out at the Sorik Marapi Unit II geothermal project, causing casualties. (RI)