Department admits blame in oil spill
In the aftermath of one of the nation's worst environmental disasters, a Federal Government department has admitted for the first time that it failed multiple times in its management of the Montara oil well.
It has also been revealed the department failed to act after a 7km-long plume was spotted coming from the West Atlas oil rig nearly five months before a leak and subsequent fire spilt 3500 tonnes of oil into the ocean.
In its submission to the Federal Government's inquiry into the disaster, the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts said the first failing came when they assessed the project in 2002.
The department said the failings continued until the day the spill began on August 21 last year, when it neglected to insist that well owners PTTEP Australasia meet a deadline for the submission of an annual compliance certificate designed to encourage it to meet its obligations under the approvals process.
The certificate of compliance was not provided to the department until August 28, a week after the Montara well-head sprung a leak and nearly eight weeks after the July 1 deadline.
The Montara oil disaster began when a blow-out forced the evacuation of the West Atlas rig, causing an oil spill that lasted more than 70 days despite repeated attempts to plug the leak.
On March 31 last year and again on April 4, Coastwatch reported a plume of discoloured water coming from the West Atlas rig. DEWHA logged the report as a compliance incident and when advised by PTTEP that the muddy water was part of a normal drilling discharge took no further action. A spokesman for PTTEP confirmed yesterday the incident did occur but said DEWHA had investigated it at the time and had determined that it did not constitute a breach.
The DEWHA submission noted that despite the Montara development being just 57 nautical miles from the environmentally sensitive Ashmore Reef, the application for drilling was not recognised by the department in 2002, 2003 nor later in 2006 as requiring anything more than a preliminary environmental assessment.
The proposal failed to trigger a requirement for detailed assessment under the nation's primary piece of environmental legislation, the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, despite the drilling being in an area close to listed and migratory species that are supposed to be protected by the Act.
Further, the department had failed to ensure the company submitted an oil spill contingency plan prior to the start of operations on the rig.
Approval for the plan was not given until June 2009, up to 11 months after work had started in the Montara oil field.
