THE operator of an oil rig responsible for a massive oil leak off the West Australian coast will be forced to pay millions of dollars to clean up the spill, which authorities warn poses a serious threat to the environment.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority yesterday launched a major clean-up operation as oil and gas continued to seep from a 1200-metre-deep well drilled by the West Atlas - an oil rig located 690 kilometres west of Darwin, 250 kilometres off the far north Kimberley coast and 150 kilometres south-east of Ashmore Reef.The spill, which is eight nautical miles long and 30 metres wide, began early on Friday, forcing the evacuation of 69 workers to Darwin.
The company responsible for the rig, PTTEP Australasia, said the leak had not yet been brought under control.
PTTEP director Jose Martins said the leak was mainly gas, with a much lower oil content than when the spill began, but the related fire risk meant it was impossible to get back on to the platform.
''So that option for bringing the leak under control is ruled out for now,'' he said.
He said early reports that poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas had been released were wrong.
The company has called in gas and oil spill experts to help with the clean-up.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was put in charge of the operation after the size of the spill became apparent. It warned that the remote location of the rig would make the clean-up difficult.
Authority chief executive Graham Peachey said it was too early to determine the environmental impact, cost, or when the leak would be stopped.
''It hasn't been contained but the slick hasn't grown overnight, and indications are it is either breaking down or evaporating as quickly as it is leaking out of the ocean floor, but all of that has to be confirmed by the science,'' Mr Peachey said.
While the slick remained a long way offshore and had not moved closer to the coastline, Mr Peachey said the environmental threat remained serious.
''Oil on the water is not good for the environment. What we are trying to do is mitigate the risks to the environment and to do so as quickly as we can.''
The authority has chartered a Hercules aircraft from Singapore to spray the slick with about 50 tonnes of chemicals to help disperse the oil. Two more aircraft are on standby for support.
Mr Peachey said the clean-up would be expensive but he would not speculate on the final bill.
He said only that the authority had insisted that PTTEP agree to meet the cost.
''I'd be speculating, but you can imagine, we've got two aircraft on the spot, we've got personnel all round the north, we've got a Hercules chartered from Singapore, and we've got a lot of stockpile of dispersant moved up there, so this is going to cost a lot,'' he said.
One of the evacuated rig workers told ABC Radio his colleagues had detected a gas leak and observed bubbling around one of the platform's 1200-metre-deep drilling holes.
He said the rig had been evacuated after concerns that hydrogen sulphide was leaking from the area.
Australian Marine Conservation Society director Darren Kindleysides said there was huge potential for damage to unique marine biodiversity.
''With the west continuing to grow as a frontier for oil and gas exploration, this could become more regular,'' Mr Kindleysides said.
WA Greens senator and the party's marine spokeswoman, Rachel Siewert, accused the company of withholding information and said the clean-up plan was taking too long.
''We should be putting out emergency response equipment much closer to those sites so that we don't have to wait 24 hours,'' Senator Siewert said.
Green group urges oil spill action
ABC Net 23 Aug 09;
An environmental action group says the delay in cleaning up an oil spill off Australia's north-west coast shows the shortcomings in the Federal Government's emergency planning for oil spills at sea.
But the Government say the spill, at the West Atlas mobile offshore drilling unit in the Timor sea, is smaller than first thought.
The incident occurred early Friday morning and 69 workers were evacuated from the site when oil and gas began leaking from the rig.
The slick is 14 kilometres long and 30 metres wide and is about 100 kilometres off the Western Australia coast.
Authorities on Saturday declared a 37-kilometre exclusion zone around the rig, which is owned by Norwegian company Seadrill and operated by Thai-based PTTEP Australasia.
John Dee from the environmental action group Do Something says urgent steps need to be taken.
"This is a particularly pristine marine environment and that's what makes this spill so concerning," he said.
"It's teeming with baby turtles at this time of year, it's a migratory whale route, and of course we need to make sure that this spill is contained because the Ashmore Reef is just 150 kilometres away.
"That's why the Government needs to make sure all efforts are made to ensure it's cleaned up as soon as possible."
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says the slick is beginning to evaporate naturally and chemical dispersants will be used to speed up that process.
He has told Channel 10 that it poses no threat to the Australian coastline.
"The oil spill is not as big as first thought. It's in the Montara [oil] field," he said.
"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is on the job. They're in charge of the clean-up and the company itself has flown in the necessary technical advice to work out how they cap the developed well as quickly as possible."
Size assessment
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says a search and rescue aircraft has just left Darwin to assess whether an oil slick off the Western Australian coast has grown overnight.
The Authority's Tracey Jiggins says a plane was sent out this morning to assess the situation, but it is expected the spill has stayed the same size.
She says a Hercules aircraft carrying chemicals to start dispersing the oil spill has also just left Darwin.
"What they'll do is they'll go out and assess the situation all the safety measurements and things will be put in place to make sure it's safe to go," she said.
"Our information is that the slick has remained quite constant. It appears to be evaporating at the same rate as it's leaking.
"We don't expect that will have changed overnight but we'll have to wait until those aircraft get on scene and feed back information about how it's going this morning."
She says a decision will then be made on how much chemical will be sprayed, with the aircraft allowed to fly within two nautical miles of the rig.
Jose Martins from PTTEP Australasia says any environmental impact will be minimal.
"The oil is dispersing very quickly, so the rate of dispersement [sic] is quite quick," he said.
"Therefore there's no visible endangerment to any wildlife at this stage, and it's quite far from any land. It is a remote location."
Fix 'could take days'
He says a group of experts is trying to work out how to fix the leak.
"Until we can get a proper report ... only then we can tell you what the next stage is and how long this will take to repair," he said.
Mr Martins says the leaking gas poses a major fire risk, making it difficult for anyone to access the site.
"We have engaged international experts and they will be given whatever resources they need to bring the situation under control," he said.
Australian oil well to gush for nearly two months
Reuters 23 Aug 09;
SYDNEY, Aug 23 (Reuters) - A leaking Australian oil well is likely to pour oil into the Timor Sea for nearly two months before it can be stopped, the operator said on Sunday, as environmentalists expressed grave fears for rare wildlife.
Rig operator PTTEP Australasia said it planned to drill a relief well and pour mud to stop the leak, which began on Friday with a blow-out more than three kilometres (two miles) deep.
It would take 20 days to bring a new offshore drilling rig by barge from Singapore, plus four weeks to drill, the company said in a statement.
Asked if this meant the well would flow for nearly two months, a company spokesman told Reuters: "That is pretty much the estimation."
Environmentalists have expressed concern about the giant slick, saying the entire area is ecologically significant and part of an "ocean super highway" for migrating animals between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Many breathe air and could surface in the oil, an official of WWF Australia said.
Earlier on Sunday the Australian Maritime Safety Authority used C-130 Hercules aircraft to spray dispersant chemicals on the slick, which was in excess of 8 nautical miles (15 kilometres) in length.
Spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said the results were encouraging but the agency was prepared for a long operation.
PTTEP Australasia, a unit of Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production PCL PTTE.BK, said a team of international experts recommended drilling a relief well, to intersect the existing well and stop its flow.
Company spokesman Ian Williams gave no estimate of the amount of oil that would be released, but said the company believed it would be possible to prevent the slick spreading.
"There is a blow-out of some kind. It is very deep," Williams told Reuters, putting the depth at around 3,500 metres.
An air exclusion zone had been set up and ships advised to stay more than 20 nautical miles away from the rig, considered too dangerous to board.
WWF Australia called for changes to ensure better preparations for such disasters, noting it took three days for the first dispersant to be sprayed.
"From a global scale this is one of the most important places on the planet for ocean wildlife," Gilly Llewelyn, WWF Australia's director of conservation, told Reuters.
Among the animals affected were three endangered species of turtles, plus sea snakes, she said. Even a pygmy blue whale has been monitored there.
"It seems to be one of these critical migration routes -- an oceanic super highway," she said.
The spill occurred at the Montara development, a project due to come on stream later this year. The West Atlas drilling unit is owned by Norway's SeaDrill Ltd (SDRL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), but operated by PTTEP Australasia.
The location has been given as about 250 km (155 miles) off the far north Kimberley coast of Western Australia state.
Australia's official overseer for the petroleum industry, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority, was investigating the incident. (Editing by Jerry Norton) (Sydney Newsroom +612 6273 2730)