Aftermath: oil, gas and condensate leak from the Montara field
- NOPSA slams Darwin over Montara spill
- PTTEP finally caps Montara well
- Fishermen in Montara legal call
- Montara blaze totals West Atlas
- Crew boards crippled Montara platform
- PTTEP reviews Montara plans in wake of fire
- 'PTTEP puts cost before safety at Montara'
- Montara "result of costs trumping safety"
- PTTEP plans Montara reboard to plug leak
- PTTEP kills Montara leak
- WWF calls on Rudd for Montara action
- PTTEP hopes for Montara start-up in 2010
- Australia launches Montara probe
- Accident stalls start-up plan
- Montara inferno killed by PTTEP
- PTTEP calls off Montara deal with Clough
'No cap on Montara well'
Montara operator PTTEP revealed that a containment cap was not installed on the well which blew out at the field, off north-west Australia.
The absence of the piece of safety equipment was made public in a submission to a federal government inquiry into the blowout and spill, which saw gas, condensate and oil spew from the blownout H1 wellbore into the Timor Sea for 71 days.
An inquiry into the causes and possible effects of the Montara spill is set to open in Canberra next month.
PTTEP also said it was aware of the cause of the spill after it plugged the H1 well, but would wait until the inquiry to make its findings public.
In its submission, the Thailand-based company said: "When the work on the wells recommenced in August 2009, PTTEP discovered that the 340 millimetre pressure-containing corrosion cap required by the drilling programme had not been installed during the suspension of the H1 Well in March 2009.
"The drilling superintendent had been advised by the drilling supervisor on the West Atlas, in an email advice of offline activities at the time of the March 2009 suspension, that the 340 millimetre pressure containing corrosion cap was installed."
PTTEP said the success of the relief well operation confirmed the source of the flow was in the 244 millimetre casing and the most likely cause of that was a channel in the cement in the shoe track casing.
The corrosion cap was removed on 20 August to clean corroded casing threads in the well and was not reinstalled, PTTEP said.
The H1 well blew out the next day.
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority, Seadrill unit West Atlas Drilling and the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts (DEWHA) have also made submissions to the inquiry.
The DEWHA submission said PTTEP did not submit an oil spill contingency plan - a condition attached to environmental approval for the development - until several months after the drilling of five wells at Montara in January last year.
It is possible that this puts PTTEP in breach of compliance with DEWHA requirements.
Conservation group WWFAustralia have also prepared a submission, as have professional fisheries associations, and a number of private individuals.
WWFAustralia's director of conservation Gilly Llewellyn, who headed a research expedition into the spill zone, said: “The submissions on the Montara oil spill and fire make sobering reading.
“They cast a long shadow of doubt over the safety of PTTEP’s operations in sensitive marine environments off our north-west coast.”
Public hearings are expected to take place between 22 February and 31 March.
The inquiry's head, retired senior public servant David Borthwick, will have the power to summon witnesses, take evidence under oath and require individuals and corporations to hand over relevant documents.