The International Steam Pages


Who wants to be a Javanese Millionaire?

All you need is your own private oil well. Maybe not when you have adopted an abandoned well and you and your friends have to haul the oil 200 metres to the surface in a metal tube. This is the Cepu Forest in Java in 2001.

There are a large number of small wells in the forest operated by nodding donkeys:

Nodding donkey

Eventually the flow rate is so slow that it is not economical to use them. However, oil continues to seep through the rocks, slowly.

Raise the pipe

The result is a few litres of a mixture of crude oil and water if you are lucky... Every week or two a tanker comes out to remove the oil to the refinery in Cepu - this was Java's first refinery a long time ago, now it is used primarily to train oil technicians.

Let it flow...


Rob and Yuehong Dickinson

Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk