FOURTEEN years ago, no aroma of global capital could be sensed at Bintuni Bay in Papua. Yet, reports of unexploited gas resources around the Bird's Beak area aound. There are now two offshore drilling sites firmly planted there and these will suck up trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. In 1997, President Suharto named this region Tangguh.

In the era of Megawati Soekarnoputri, this region was declared a national project in order to develop the