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| This handout photo provided by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) from Sept. 2009 shows a man looking at a waxy substance found in water affected by the Montara oil rig leak in the Timor Sea. Monitoring the clean-up of a huge oil spill in pristine Australian waters could take as long as seven years, an official said in Nov. 2009, as environmentalists urged a wide-ranging inquiry into the disaster. (AFP Photo/WWF/Kara Burns) |
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Kupang,
West Timor. A prominent US expert in oil spill recovery said in Kupang on
Saturday that Indonesia needs to craft a program to deal with the lingering and
largely over-looked effects of the 2009 Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea.
Dr. Robert
Spies, who was the Chief Scientist for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee
Council, and who served as an adviser to US government after the BP Deepwater
Horizon disaster in 2010, said the Timor Sea can still be restored, but only
with “serious attempts” made by the Indonesian and Australian governments in
coordination with the company who operated the Montara platform.
Serious
attempts would include substantial money, much of which should come from Thai
state-owned oil and gas company PTT Exploration and Production, Montara’s
primary operator.
Spies said
he's recently studied the impact of the Montara spill in the Timor sea,
especially in Indonesian waters. He said the pollution caused by the Montara
leak was just as severe as the Gulf of Mexico spill.
“Restoration
programs could be made after hearing expert opinions involved in examining the
effects of the pollution on the environment,” Spies said at a discussion on
pollution and impact on the environment.
The Montara
oil spill leaked an estimated 2,000 barrels a day from Aug. 21 to Nov. 3 2009
(or 74 days), according to the Australian Department of Resources, Energy and
Tourism. The Montara slick grew to almost 90,000 square kilometers and entered
Indonesian waters, according to environmental group WWF.
A team led
by the Environment Ministry said the oil slick covered 16,420 square meters of
Indonesian maritime territory. The West Timor Care Foundation, which supports
poor fishermen in eastern Indonesia, estimated the spill affected the
livelihoods of about 18,000 fishermen. Businesses such as seaweed and pearl
farms were also reportedly hit.
Spies said
damage in the Gulf of Mexico was minimized thanks to quick action taken by
American authorities in 2010; Spies said the US government was quick to launch
environmental restoration programs, and asked British Petroleum to finance much
of the environmental assessment.
BP was also
asked to provide compensation for people directly impacted by the spill —
namely fishermen.
Similar
methods could be used for the Timor Sea pollution through coordination through
the multitude of companies involved, Spies was quoted as saying by Antara.
The Motara
platform was owned by Norwegian-Bermudan Seadrill, and operated by PTTEP
Australasia (PTTEPAA), a subsidiary of PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) —
that company was in turn a subsidiary of PTT.
Houston-based
Halliburton was involved in cementing the well, and were also involved in
cementing the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon well.
Jakarta Globe and Antara
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