Slick in Timor Sea: PTTEP working hard to clean up mess following oil and gas leak from Seadrill's jack-up West Atlas.
PTTEP works on Montara clean-up
Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production is working hard to clean up the oil slick and control the leaking well at its Montara oil project off Western Australia.
The company said the oil slick covers an area of eight nautical miles long (15 kilometres) and 30 metres wide has not shown signs of expanding since the 21 August blowout from a well on the Montara platform.
The Seadrill-owned jack-up West Atlas was drilling through the platform on an adjacent well at the time of the incident.
All 69 crew on board the drilling rig were safely evacuated, and no injuries were reported.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said today it was continuing its clean-up operations at Montara on behalf of PTTEP.
Various aircraft have flown across the slick to apply dispersant, and AMSA said today the aircraft Dornier has done an observation flight this morning and observed the slick remained in the vicinity of the West Atlas.
"PTTEP has indicated that it will be weeks before the leak can be stopped. Under National Plan arrangements, AMSA is well prepared for a protracted clean-up operation and has mobilised personnel and resources including aircraft and stocks of dispersant to cope with the lengthy response," the agency said.
"Operations will continue and planning for activity will be done on a day-by-day basis. The priority for AMSA remains to get oil off the water as quickly as possible to mitigate any risk to the environment."
PTTEP repeated that its plan to control the well is to drill a relief well to intersect the existing well and stop its oil and gas flow. Seadrill's jack-up, West Triton, a sister rig to West Atlas, is expected to arrive at Montara in two weeks' time to carry out the relief mission.
The drilling contractor said the jack-up rig West Atlas has sustained an unknown amount of damage and will have to undergo repairs when it is deemed safe to do so.
Seadrill also issued a statement this morning stating that the leak did not emanate from the West Atlas. It added that the leak has been rtaced to a well on the Montara wellhead platform.
PTTEP spokesman Mike Groves confirmed Seadrill's statement, telling Upstreamonline: "The West Atlas was not working on the well that sustained the leak."
He added that the Thai producer will bear the cost of clean-up work.
Meanwhile, Woodside Petroleum’s chief Don Voelte has offered to help in the clean-up operations.
Woodside is able to provide rigs, boats, workers and “expert team” for the response to the oil and gas leak, Voelte told the Bloomberg news agency.
The oil spill “does hurt the industry, clearly, and it does hurt Australia at the end of the day”, Voelte said after addressing a business gathering. “We’d like to see it managed and repaired as soon as possible.”
The affected area is dubbed as a “marine superhighway”, providing a nursing ground for baby turtles during this time of the year and serving as a migratory route for whales and other marine life, Australian Greens marine spokeswoman Senator Rachel Siewert was reported as saying on Saturday.
- PTTEP's chief financial officer Jose Martins released a statement regarding the incident. The statement is available as an MP3 file. To download and listen to it, go to the related files section to the right of this story.
- All of Upstream's coverage of the Montara spill is available in the related articles section to the right of this story