A massive oil spill off northwest Australia has hit Indonesia, killing fish and destroying livelihoods in poor villages along the Timor Sea, a non-governmental group said Monday.
About 7,000 fishermen in East Nusa Tenggara province have been affected by the spill from the Thai-operated West Atlas rig, which has dumped thousands of barrels of oil into the Timor Sea since August 21, the group said.
“After the leak started the fishermen’s income dropped 40 percent but since last week it’s been 80 percent lower,” said Ferdi Tanoni of the West Timor Care Foundation, which supports poor fishermen in eastern Indonesia.
“Before this incident, they were able to catch about 100 red snapper a night. But now it’s extremely difficult to even get 20 fish.”
The PTTEP Australasia-operated rig caught fire Sunday during an attempt to stop the leak, engulfing the deck and well-head platform some 250 kilometers off the Australian coast.
Environmental group WWF has said the spill is “one of Australia’s biggest environmental disasters”.
It says more than 400,000 liters of oil have been spilt, generating a slick spanning 10,000-25,000 square kilometers that threatens animals including dolphins and sea turtles.
Agence France Presse
Australia: No Oil From Burning Rig Reached Indonesia
Jakarta Globe 2 Nov 09;
The Australian Embassy in Indonesia on Monday said it was “highly unlikely that any Montara oil would have come close to Indonesian coastal waters.”
“Oil has a unique fingerprint, so it is relatively easy to verify whether or not the oil found in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) was from the Montara spill,” the embassy said in a press release.
The statement was issued in response to reports that the leaking oil rig was affecting Indonesia’s marine environment. The Montara oil well, which is operated by Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Australasia, is located about 250 kilometers off the north coast of Western Australia.
A spokeswoman for the company on Sunday said specialists had succeeded in the first stage of plugging the well, which has been spilling at least 400 barrels of oil each day into the ocean since Aug. 21, creating an oil slick that covers an area estimated to be at least 6,000 square kilometers.
But before the leak could actually be stopped, a fire broke out, she said.
The World Wildlife Fund has said the slick has already drifted hundreds of kilometers toward East Nusa Tenggara.
The WWF has called the spill “one of Australia’s biggest environmental disasters,” one that threatens marine animals, including dolphins and sea turtles.
Last week, the regional environmental management agency in East Nusa Tenggara said water samples taken on Oct. 10 tested positive for oil suspected to have come from the Montara oil field.
Local officials and environmental groups have also said that fishermen from Rote and Kupang districts in the province had discovered hundreds of dead fish in Indonesian waters, and that residents in villages on small islands off the coast of West Timor were suffering skin problems and acute diarrhea after eating contaminated fish.
The Australian Embassy, in its release, said it was aware of these reports, but said: “Australia has undertaken toxicity tests on fish collected in the vicinity of the oil spill in Australian waters, and results showed no oil contamination. The type and amount of oil observed in Indonesia’s [Exclusive Economic Zone] is considered to pose no significant threat to the marine environment.”
It added that it would conduct further tests.
The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier said that the government would send a letter to Canberra about the situation.
But when contacted by the Jakarta Globe on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the government was still verifying the facts and a national team would be assembled to investigate the case.
The Australian Embassy, however, said in its release that the Australian government had been coordinating with Indonesia.
“Indonesian officials visited Darwin from 30 September to 2 October to observe first-hand Australia’s comprehensive response to the Montara wellhead oil and gas leak. These officials also undertook an overflight of the area,” it said.
It added that discussions were ongoing with Indonesia about a possible visit by a team of Australian officials and company representatives to Jakarta in early November.
The embassy also said the Australian government was focused on limiting the effects of the oil spill on the environment.
“A major clean-up exercise is occurring applying dispersants and conducting containment and recovery operations using booms and skimmers,” it said.
JG, AFP
Burning Oil Rig May Collapse
Jakarta Globe 2 Nov 09;
Sydney. An oil rig leaking into the Timor Sea and engulfed in a massive blaze is at risk of total collapse, the rig operator acknowledged Monday, as government officials frustrated by failure to plug the leak promised an investigation.
Officials with rig operator PTTEP Australasia were planning to pump more heavy mud into a leaking well casing on Tuesday in the hopes of removing the source of fuel from the fire, which broke out on the West Atlas rig and Montara wellhead platform on Sunday.The blaze started when workers were pouring mud into a hole that has been leaking an estimated 400 barrels of oil a day since Aug. 21. The company says it does not know what sparked the blaze.
"The fire is out of control," PTTEP Australasia chief financial officer Jose Martins told reporters in Perth on Monday.
A portion of the rig has already collapsed onto the wellhead platform, and there is a "large risk" the West Atlas rig could collapse into the sea, Martins said.
Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said Monday that once the spill is contained he would launch an official inquiry.
"Our requirement is to assess the cause of the accident and any lessons to be learnt, and that could lead to a change in the regulatory environment," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Ferguson later told reporters in Melbourne that if PTTEP was "found to have been at fault with respect to any of their responsibilities, then any potential action will be appropriately considered at the time."
On Monday, the company said it was mixing 4,000 barrels of heavy mud to pour down the well on Tuesday morning.
The oil slick from the rig, about 150 miles (250 kilometers) off Australia's northwest coast, now stretches across thousands of miles (kilometers) of remote ocean. Indonesia said last week that thousands of dead fish and clumps of oil have been found drifting near its coastline.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Monday he was "deeply disturbed" at the latest turn of events on the rig, signaling the government's rising frustration that fixing the spill is taking so long.
"Do I think this is acceptable? No, I don't," Rudd told Fairfax Radio Network. "Are we angry with this company? Yes we are. Are we trying to do everything we can to get this under control? You betcha."
AP
Australian oil rig will burn until leak capped
Channel NewsAsia 2 Nov 09;
SYDNEY: A massive oil rig fire burning out of control off Australia's northwest coast cannot be stopped until a well that has been leaking for 10 weeks is capped, officials warned Monday.
The West Atlas rig caught fire Sunday during the latest attempt to stop the leak, which has dumped thousands of barrels of oil into the Timor Sea since August 21.
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the rig's Thai-based operators PTTEP Australasia would make another attempt Monday to stop the spill by filling the well with heavy mud.
"Therefore removing the source of gas which is fuelling the fire," he said.
PTTEP said stopping the leak was the only way to extinguish the blaze engulfing the deck and well-head platform some 250 kilometres (155 miles) off the coast.
"The measures which we have been able to take so far can only mitigate the fire, they will not stop the fire," the company's chief financial officer Jose Martins said.
"The best way to stop the fire is to complete the well-kill and stop the flow of oil and gas at the surface of the H1 well, cutting off the fuel source for the fire."
Ferguson said the accident, the first major incident in the past 25 years of offshore drilling, had "clearly had an impact on the standing of the oil and gas industry in Australia".
"And I simply say that once the well is filled, the platform is made safe, I will conduct a full and independent enquiry to actually assess the cause of the incident and the manner in which it has been handled over the last 10 weeks," he said.
Environmental groups have criticised the government's handling of the spill, saying it is threatening bird and marine life off Western Australia's resource-rich northern coast.
PTTEP said the company was focusing on the safety of its staff, bringing the fire under control and plugging the leak.
"Presently there are many unanswered questions, including what caused the fire," Martins told reporters in Perth on Sunday.
- AFP/yb