THERE was plenty of backslapping in Perth yesterday over the final approval for the $43 billion Gorgon gas project, but another story involving Australia's oil and gas industry continues to paint a different picture. The West Atlas drill rig has been belching up to 400 barrels of light sweet crude oil a day into the Timor Sea off Australia since a leak developed in a well deep below the ocean floor.
Along with unknown quantities of methane gas and condensate, as much as 1215tonnes of oil may have seeped into the sea since the blowout almost four weeks ago.
PTTEP Australasia, the Thai-owned company that operates the wellhead platform 250km northwest of the Truscott air base in Western Australia's Kimberley region, has put in place a complex and highly technical operation to plug the leak.....
RELATED:
OIL SLICK IN THE TIMOR SEA
An oil rig in the Timor Sea began leaking oil and gas on August 21, 2009, and fuel continued to spill into the sea in the first week of September.
* http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=40123&src=nha
*** MODIS(Terra) image from Sep 03, 2009 (Posted on Sep 08, 2009 3:06 PM)
