Waiting for Australia`s good will on Montara oil spill

Fardah | ANTARA News | January 25, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Australia must have felt great relief when a leak at an oil rig in its Montara field was permanently plugged but neighboring countries like Indonesia and Timor Leste may continue to bear the consequences of the sea pollution the leak caused.

In mid-January 2010, the leak following a blowout at the West Atlas rig operated by PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) Australasia, a unit of top Thai energy company PTTEP, was finally plugged and secured permanently. But the leak had allowed hydrocarbons to spill into the Timor Sea between August and November last year.

Last year, PTTEP estimated the quantity of the leakage from the damaged wellbore at between 300 barrels and 400 barrels of oil per day, but the Australian Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism told a Senate committee in late October that it believed up to 2,000 bpd was leaking into the sea.

ABC News last January 14, 2010, quoted Martin Pritchard from Environs Kimberley, an Australian environmental pressure group, as saying the group remained concerned about the amount of oil which had leaked into the ocean.

"It`s been an awfully long time but we`re still obviously very concerned that there are

massive amounts of oil that leaked into the Timor Sea off the Kimberley coast, and that this will have an impact on sea life for many years to come," he said.

Most vulnerable to the oil spill`s impacts are fishermen in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and in the tiny state of Timor Leste.

In NTT, some 7,000 traditional fishermen and more than 10,000 coastal communities rely on the Timor Sea and seaweed cultivation for a living.

Following the incident, fishermen in Oesapa in the district of Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, found thousands of dead fish floating in the Timor Sea.

NTT`s Environmental Affairs Agency (BLHD), based on a laboratory test, also confirmed that Timor Sea waters had been contaminated with oil leaked from an explosion at the Montara oil field.

The NTT authorities had reported about the impacts of the Montara oil spill to the central government after establishing a monitoring team consisting of, among others, officers from the Kupang harbor authority, the Kupang naval base, the NTT water police, and the regional environmental impact assessment agency.

NTT Governor Frans Lebu Raya had earlier demanded responsibility from the oil field operator PTTEP Australasia regarding the pollution.

"The Australian government, in this case the Montara oil field operator, is responsible for the problem," NTT Governor Frans Lebu Raya said in Kupang last October.

Following the outcry by the NTT authorities, NGOs and fishermen, the government said that it would seek compensation from Australia for environmental damage in the Timor Sea caused by a leak at the Montara well.

"We have finished calculating our material loss due to the Timor Sea`s contamination and will ask the Australian government for compensation soon," Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said recently.

Timor Leste is also reportedly demanding compensation from the Australian government for the environmental damage.

East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said last November the spill was the responsibility of the Australian Government and the Thai company that owns the platform.

Ramos-Horta called for Australian environmental groups to help assess if the spill has caused any damage to Timor Leste`s maritime area and said he would seek compensation for any negative effects to his country`s environment, according to a ABC news report.

The Australian Government, however, earlier said only small patches of "weathered oil" have gone into Indonesia`s economic zone, and that was about 100 kilometres from Roti.

The Indonesian foreign ministry last year also set up a national team to calculate the material losses Indonesia has suffered from pollution in the Timor Sea by an explosion at the Montara oil field.

"The minister has already set up a national team to calculate the material losses incurred by Indonesia because of the pollution in the Timor Sea," Ferdi Tanoni, chairman of the Care West Timor Foundation (YPTB) said last November.

As a result of the oil leak, a lot of coral reefs and fish in the area had been polluted, he said.

He said he hoped after calculation of the loss were made Indonesia would claim compensation from the Australian government.

Earlier he said that the pollution problem was not a bilateral problem between Indonesia and Australia but a trilateral problem because Timor Leste was included in the discussion of the problem.

Tanoni claimed that PTTEP Australasia had compensated West Australian fishermen affected by an oil spill.

"Australasia secretly negotiated with the Western Australian fishermen, while Indonesian fishermen who were affected by the oil pollution were completely ignored," Ferdi Tanoni said in Kupang last December.

He said the YPTB had received information from Canberra that the secret negotiations were carried out by the Montara oil field operator last October after West Australian fisherman threatened to sue PTTEP Australasia.

Therefore, he urged the National Oil Spill Emergency Response Team on the Timor Sea formed by the Indonesian government on November 22, to take immediate action to address the problem that had occurred in the Timor Sea.

Tanoni also said the actions taken by PTTEP Australasia in compensating West Australian fishermen were discriminatory against Indonesian people on the islands of Timor and Rote Ndao.

"The question that has arisen is why should there be such a difference between West Australian and Indonesian fishermen? Is this the good neighborhood policy Australia is pursuing," he said.

Considering the existence of the stagnation, YPTB had asked the Ocean Watch Indonesia (OWI), Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM), Forum for the Environment (WALHI), the People`s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA), and the Alliance of Timor Sea Traditional Fishermen (Antralamor) as well as some environmental and national level fisheries organizations, to give an ultimatum to the oil spill disaster recovery team.

"If nothing happens, the alliance will open a Command Post to register complaints from people in the Timor and Rote Ndao islands who feel harmed by the Montara oil pollution,

or written testimony, evidence and facts," he said.

The Australian embassy in Jakarta reacted last December by announcing that discussions were underway between the Australian and Indonesian Governments regarding monitoring of the oil spill`s impacts, if any, in Indonesian waters.

According to an Australian Embassy media release made available to Antara, the Australian Government has announced a comprehensive Commission of Inquiry into the Montara oil spill underlining Australia`s commitment to ensuring this issue was dealt with in an open and transparent manner.

The Inquiry is due to submit its report to the Australian Government by the end of April 2010.

An Australian Government delegation visited Indonesia on November 10, 2009 to brief Indonesian officials on the oil spill including clean up operations and environmental issues associated with the spill.

"Australia will continue to act consistently with international law and our strong bilateral relationship in responding to this incident," the embassy`s press statement said.

The latest statement on the compensation demand by Indonesia came from Kupang, NTT`s provincial capital very recently.

"A laboratory test conducted by the Timor Sea oil leak examination team showed that the Timor Sea was polluted by crude oil coming from the Montara oil field. Therefore, we are preparing a request for compensation from Australia for the pollution," Pieter Fina, head of the Timor Sea Oil Pollution Mitigation Team, said in Kupang, January 20.

Fina, head of the Tenau Kupang harbor administration, made the statement after he had attended a technical meeting on the team`s result in Jakarta, last January 15.

Due to the oil pollution, the incomes of fishermen operating in Timor Sea had fallen significantly and seaweed cultivations in Timor Island as well as Rote and Sabu Isle had failed completely, he said.

The oil pollution has disadvantaged fishermen and seaweed farmers in NTT coastal areas, therefore Indonesia would ask for compensation, he said. (*)

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