Montara oil spill

Montara oil spill
Satellite image of the oil slick in the Timor Sea, September 2009.
Location	Timor Sea, off the northern coast of Western Australia
Date	21 August 2009 to 3 November 2009 (74 days)
Cause	Leak from the Montara wellhead platform
Operator	PTT Public Company Limited
Volume	1.2 to 9 million US gallons (4,500 to 34,100 m3) total
Area	6,000 km2 (2,300 sq mi)

The Montara oil spill was an oil and gas leak and subsequent slick that took place in the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea, off the northern coast of Western Australia. It is considered one of Australia's worst oil disasters. The slick was released following a blowout from the Montara wellhead platform on 21 August 2009, and continued leaking until 3 November 2009 (in total 74 days), when the leak was stopped by pumping mud into the well and the wellbore cemented thus "capping" the blowout. The West Atlas rig is owned by the Norwegian-Bermudan Seadrill, and operated by PTTEP Australasia (PTTEPAA), a subsidiary of PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) which is in turn a subsidiary of PTT, the Thai state-owned oil and gas company was operating over on adjacent well on the Montara platform. Houston-based Halliburton was involved in cementing the well. The Montara field is located off the Kimberley coast, 250 km (160 mi) north of Truscott airbase, and 690 km (430 mi) west of Darwin. Sixty-nine workers were safely evacuated from the West Atlas jackup drilling rig when the blowout occurred.

The Australian Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism estimated that the Montara oil leak could be as high as 2,000 barrels (320 m³)/day, five times the 400 barrels (64 m³)/day estimated by PTTEP Australasia. A spokesman for Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, said the 2,000 barrels (320 m³) referred to the amount of oil that the well could produce when brought into peak production. After flying over the spill site, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert claimed the spill was far greater than had originally been reported.WWF-Australia also claimed that the spill was worse than originally expected.