A waxy substance floating in water affected by the Montara oil rig leak in the Timor Sea. Environmentalists have urged a wide-ranging inquiry into the disaster. (Photo: Kara Burns, AFP)

Australian Oil Well Leak Plugged but Environment Fears Grow

Salvage crews overnight on Tuesday managed to seal off a leaking oil well that spewed millions of liters of crude oil into the Timor Sea for 74 days, contaminating thousands of square kilometers of ocean and killing vast amounts of wildlife.

PTTEP Australasia, a unit of Thailand’s state-owned PTT Exploration & Production Plc, said crews had poured 3,400 barrels of heavy mud and 1,000 barrels of brine into a relief well drilled down to the rupture, which is 2.5 kilometers below sea level, and that a fire that started on Sunday on the ruined and listing West Atlas deep sea drilling platform was beginning to subside.

The magnitude of the spill, in a pristine ocean teeming with wildlife in a remote corner of Asia, has kicked off a belated furor in Australia, with environmentalists and others calling for an enquiry and demanding that all new exploration permits in the region be frozen.

In particular, lawmakers and other critics are demanding to know why PTTEP was granted additional concessions in the area even as the spill continued.

On Oct. 24, PTTEP took control of five new exploration licenses that gave it access to another 1,479 square kilometers of Australian waters near the leaking Montara block rig, which lies about 240 kilometers off Australia’s northwestern coast.

Australian Marine Conservation Society spokesman Darren Kindleysides told The Age newspaper in October that PTTEP’s track record should have been considered before access was granted to new fields.

“Clearly PTTEP’s track record has been pretty shabby in recent months,” Kindleysides was quoted as saying. “Major questions still hang unanswered over why this spill happened and why it hasn’t been plugged yet.”

The government, however, said PTTEP was an internationally respected oil and gas exploration company and should not be penalized until the reasons for the undersea rupture were known.

Martin Ferguson, federal resources minister, said the government would launch an official inquiry into the causes of the spill. He 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.”

The big concern now is which way the massive oil slick will move. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said on Wednesday that so far no oil had reached the coastlines of either Australia or Indonesia. As many as 300 personnel, using 17 ships and nine aircraft, have been battling the slick since it erupted on Aug. 21.

They have applied dispersants, worked to contain the spread and sought to recover as much of the oil as possible through the use of skimmers. The cost of containing the spill had already reached 5 million Australian dollars ($4.5 million), the government said.

The Indonesian government said oil washing up onto the coast of some small islands had sickened some residents, who said they were suffering from skin problems and diarrhea from eating contaminated fish. The government warned residents not to eat any dead fish found floating near the spill. As many as 10,000 communities rely on the Timor Sea for sustenance, with some 7,000 fishermen plying its waters.

The World Wildlife Fund Australia warned that the oil, combined with the chemicals being used to disperse it, could affect fish stocks and other marine life for generations, describing the spill — said to be the worst in Australia in 40 years — as an overwhelming environmental tragedy. In a report released on Oct. 25, the WWF said up to 15 species of whales and dolphins, over 30 species of seabirds and five of turtles were the potential victims of the Montera spill.

As many as 30,000 individual sea snakes and 16,000 turtles could be found in the area affected by the slick, the report said. At that time, the WWF estimated the slick at between 6,500 and 15,000 square kilometers.

“This area has a huge amount of marine life, including some of the most iconic ocean wildlife. Species such as Fraser’s dolphin, green and flatback turtles and red-footed boobies migrate through this area and may come into contact with the slick,” Gilly Llewellyn, the WWF director, told reporters. She also warned about the use of dispersants.

“We should not be lulled into thinking that spraying dispersants on the surface solves the problem,” said Llewellyn, a wildlife biologist. “These dispersants may end up actually raising the level of toxicity in the water while sinking some of the oil currently on the surface into deeper water.”

“We do not underestimate the significantly increased technical complexity, logistical challenges and hazards of the work now required in the wake of the damage caused by the fire to the wellhead platform and the West Atlas rig,” PTTEP Australasia said in a prepared news release.

“We will continue to work closely with the Australian Marine Safety Authority to assist in the oil spill clean-up operations. PTTEP remains committed to fully funding the spill cleanup and environmental monitoring programs being undertaken by the lead federal government agencies.”

Asia Sentinel

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