Massive fire on oil well off Australia

An oil well at the centre of a massive spill in Timor Sea more than 200km off Western Australia's Kimberley coastline is on fire.

PTTEP Australasia, which runs the well, read a statement to reporters in Perth on Sunday, saying fire was burning around the cantilever deck of the West Atlas rig and Montara well head platform.

The company said the fire broke out as it made another attempt to plug a leak deep underwater at the West Atlas rig.

Engineers have been trying to stop the leak for 10 weeks.

Since August 21 an estimated 400 barrels a day of gas and oil is being emitted from the leak.

PTTEP Australasia chief financial officer Jose Martins said the only way to stop the fire was to plug the leak reports the BBC.

"The measures which we have been able to take so far can only mitigate the fire. They will not stop the fire.

"The best way to stop the fire is to complete the well-kill and stop the flow of gas and oil at the surface from the H-1 well, cutting off the fuel source for the fire."

He says they do not know how the fire started, reports Australian newspaper The Age.

PTTEP said all employees trying to fix the leak at the time the fire broke out were safe.

Opposition spokesman, Greg Hunt, accused Environment Minister Peter Garrett of doing nothing to stop the oil leak.

"Ten weeks of complacency, 10 weeks of drift, 10 weeks of inaction from Mr Garrett," he said.

"In the absence of action... the prime minister must step in and convene a national environmental emergency task force within the next 24 hours."


Australian Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said in a statement that some of the world's leading experts were working to fix the leaking well and respond to this latest problem.

Mr Ferguson said the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority had been called out to help fight the fire and that Geoscience Australia and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority were on standby.

The spill has cost PTTEP, a Thai company, about AU$177 million (NZ$222 million) and its clean-up bill has so far exceeded $5 million (NZ$6.2 million) reports The Age.

The federal government released a report on Friday revealing hundreds of birds and marine species were at immediate risk from the spill.

While the total effects of the spill were yet to be determined, the report found scientists had found dead and dying birds and sea snakes in the area.

They also counted 462 whales and dolphins, 2,801 birds, 62 sea snakes and 25 turtles in the affected areas over five days of observation.

- NZ HERALD STAFF