Since May 2006 , more than 10,000 people in the Porong District have been displaced by the hot mud flowing from a natural gas well being drilled by Lapindo Brantas , an oil well company that is part of a conglomerate owned by Coordinating Minister for the People 's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie . Gas and hot mud started spewing from the well on May 28 , when the drill penetrated a layer of liquid sediment . Attempts to pump concrete down the well did not stop the flow . While some scientists have speculated that the earthquake that struck Yogyakarta on May 27 , the day before the well erupted , may have cracked the ground , creating potential pathways for the mud to reach the surface , others have suggested that the drilling procedure was faulty by not using a casing . This is likely to be incorrect as technical papers on the subject showed that there were up to four sets of casing installed and cemented in the well . Some 50,000 cubic metres of hot mud were erupting every day as of August ; in September , the amount increased to some 125,000 cubic metres daily . On September 26 barriers built to hold back the mud failed , resulting in the flooding of more villages . Gus Maksum , one of the thousands of Sidoarjo villagers displaced by the mud flow gives a detailed first-hand account of the first year of the disaster in his memoir '' Titanic Made By Lapindo '' . As of late September 2006 scientists are saying that the eruption may be a mud volcano forming , and may be impossible to stop
earthquake
2006 Yogyakarta earthquake
Sidoarjo Regency