Bermuda Oil Rig Cited In Reef Disaster
Recent undersea pictures and video have shown that conditions in Indonesia’s Timor Sea have deteriorated at an alarming rate, largely caused by a catastrophic 2009 oil spill which occurred following an accident on an oil rig owned by a Bermuda company.
Australian and Indonesian experts claimed this week that around 158,000 acre of coral reefs in the Sawu Sea had been destroyed by both the oil spill and chemical substances used to submerge the oil. In addition, coastal people in East Nusa Tenggara have reported suffering from “strange diseases.”
On August 21, 2009, an oil field off the northern coast of Western Australia and in Indonesia’s Timor Sea experienced a blowout at a wellhead platform, causing a large oil and gas leak which is considered one of Australia’s worst oil disasters. The rig, owned by the Norwegian-Bermudian Seadrill and operated by PTTEP Australasia [PTTEPAA], continued to leak for 74 days until it was capped on November 3, 2009.
According to the Australian Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, the Montara oil spill was leaking as much as 2,000 barrels a day. Reports indicate over 10.5 million gallons of crude oil was spilled into Australian waters, which reached Indonesia’s seas through natural currents.
Over 43,500 square miles of sea in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province were eventually polluted. The Australian government later informed that an inquiry revealed that PTTEPAA’s failure to carry out standard operating procedures caused the oil spill.
PTTEPAA previously stated that the oil spills in Timor Sea were small and do not affect the local people environmentally, socially and economically. However, Australian and Indonesian environmental activists insist the damage is self-evident, calling for a thorough study that would also show the cost of he damage from the spill.
Last September, Indonesian Environment Minister Mohammad Gusti Hatta urged the Government of Australia to sign a compensation payment agreement related to the oil spill, which has already been postponed on two occasions.
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Category: All, Business, Environment
What a disaster!! To think Bermuda is connected to this destruction! I don’t remember hearing anything about this in 2009, though it looks like our ‘deny, deny’ policy extends internationally, and, once again, it is obvious how carelessly we handle the truth. So sad.