Nearly 200 submissions to the Montara Commission of Inquiry have been made public overnight, revealing regulatory breaches, missing safety equipment and a grossly inadequate response to the environmental impacts of one of Australia’s biggest oil spills.
"The submissions on the Montara oil spill and fire make sobering reading," said Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia’s Director of Conservation.
"They cast a long shadow of doubt over the safety of PTTEP’s operations in sensitive marine environments off our Northwest coast."
Submissions by the oil companies involved in the incident, PTTEP and Atlas Drilling, demonstrate that a critical piece of safety equipment, a Pressure Containment Corrosion Cap, was reported as being in place when in fact it was not even installed in the Montara H1 Well responsible for the disaster.
The Commonwealth Department of Environment’s submission also reveals that PTTEP did not submit an Oil Spill Contingency Plan – a condition attached to its environmental approval – until months after it had drilled five wells on the Montara platform in January 2009, clearly putting it in breach of compliance with DEWHA requirements.
Dr Llewellyn, who led WWF’s research expedition to the oil spill, says these revelations show failures in both operational practice and in the regulatory and compliance arrangements of the oil and gas industry.
"Montara should have been recognised as a high-risk situation. There have been more than one and a half thousand wells drilled in Australian waters. How many more of them are missing critical accident prevention devices or have insufficient safeguards in place? How can we be sure there are not more ‘accidents waiting to happen’ sitting among our most fragile and vulnerable reefs and wildlife?" said Dr Llewellyn.
WWF is calling on the Inquiry to urgently order an audit of all existing wells to assure they are complying with regulations designed to protect worker safety and the environment.
"This isn’t just a case of one sloppy operator slipping through the cracks. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has said he will do whatever it takes to make sure another uncontrolled leak doesn’t happen. If he means what he says, we urgently need to know how many more dodgy or dangerous operators are out there," said Dr Llewellyn.
The conservation organisation’s own submission makes clear the chronic misunderstanding of the marine environment by the operator of the Montara well, PTTEP.
"According to PTTEP’s assessment, this area wasn’t environmentally important, and operations were unlikely to have any effect on marine wildlife," said Dr Llewellyn. "Our research in the area affected by the oil spill shows conclusively the opposite is true.
"The area is home to whales, dolphins, turtles, sea snakes, fish and birds. Despite this, the wildlife monitoring response is a joke. Long-term monitoring of effects of the toxic contamination has not yet started, and appears not to have been happening during the critical period when there was oil and dispersants in the water.
"When it comes to wildlife monitoring, the response from PTTEP is unacceptable. We simply cannot afford another Montara. Out of sight should never mean out of mind."
More information
Jonathon Larkin, WWF Media Officer, 02 8202 1216, 0410 221 410, [email protected]