Asia-Pacific News
Third bid to plug Timor Sea oil leak fails
Oct 17, 2009, 5:44 GMT
Sydney - A Thai oil exploration company said Saturday its third attempt to plug a leaking Timor Sea oil well had failed.
The West Atlas drilling platform operated by Thailand's PTTEP Australasia in the Montara field 690 kilometres west of Darwin has been leaking around 400 barrels of oil and gas a day since August 21.
PTTEP brought in a mobile rig from Indonesia to drill 2.6 kilometres into the seabed to try and intersect the leaking well and plug it with drilling mud.
'The closer we get to the target with each pass the more certain we become of its location,' PTTEP Australasia director Jose Martins said after the second attempt failed last week.
Conservation organization the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has reported that the slick could cover up to 15,000 square kilometres. Because there is a 40-kilometre exclusion zone, WWF can only estimate the scale of the pollution.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has been using C-130 Hercules aircraft flying from Darwin each day to drop dispersant over the slick.
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