A massive oil spill at a drilling rig off northwestern Australia is much worse than initially thought and is within kilometers of the shoreline, the Greens party said yesterday.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert flew over the spill in a chartered plane on Friday and said its “devastating” size was being downplayed by the authorities.
“The spill is far bigger than we have been told and closer to the coast than expected,” Siewert said.
“From east to west it stretches 180km at a minimum. Urgent action is needed to stop the flow,” she added.
Meanwhile, Australia denied claims yesterday it had downplayed the scale of the spill, and said the slick was dispersing naturally.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said the Greens party was exaggerating the size of the leak at the West Atlas drilling platform, about 250km off the Australian mainland.
“The area of the spill is rectangular in nature,” Ferguson said.
“It is to the north-east of the rig and 15 nautical miles [28km] to the north and 60 nautical miles to the east. Contrary to what the Greens are suggesting, the closest it is to the Australian coastline is in excess of 80 miles [129km].”
Tonnes of dispersant chemicals have been dumped on the slick, and Ferguson said most of it was breaking up naturally.
“This spill will continue to spread in a north-easterly direction and I must say, as of today the weather conditions are assisting,” Ferguson said. “They are a bit more choppy and that will assist in the natural break-up of the oil and gas.”
Oil and gas began leaking from the West Atlas rig, about 250km off the Australian mainland early last Friday, forcing the evacuation of 69 workers.
Its Bangkok-based operator PTTEP Australasia was unable to cap the leak, and authorities have warned it could take up to seven weeks to contain, with a second rig sent from Singapore for the repair operation.
Tonnes of dispersant chemical had been dumped on the slick, but Siewert said oil had come within 20km of the coast. Based on average flow rates in the region and data from the company, Siewert said almost 500,000 liters of oil was daily spilling into the ocean. Siewert urged PTTEP and Norway’s Seadrill, which owns the West Atlas platform, to accept the offer of a relief rig from Australian company Woodside Petroleum.
“We’re calling on the companies to take up Woodside’s offer, because that rig can be there apparently within around five days,” she said. “There’s still around 17 days for the rig the company wants to use to get there. That’s an extra almost two weeks worth of oil pumping into the environment and that is simply unacceptable,” she said.
But PTTEP said there was no indication Woodside’s equipment would reach West Atlas any faster than the Singapore rig, which it estimated would arrive in “seven or eight days”.
“The other thing is there’s different types of rigs and the option that has been selected by the company is the safest, most effective and most likely for success,” PTTEP spokesman Ian Williams said.
He would not comment on Siewert’s claims about the size and extent of the spill.
PTTEP on Monday had estimated the slick was 8 nautical miles long and 30m wide, and said it had “not shown signs of expanding.”
It plans to drill a relief well with the secondary rig to intersect the leaking well head and stop the flow of oil and gas.
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