Place: the Timor Sea. Time: about nine weeks ago. The crew of the stricken West Atlas oil rig has been evacuated after the explosive onset of the oil spill that still continues to splosh at least 400 barrels a day into the water.
Around 50 km to the northwest, meanwhile, another offshore platform has sprung a leak - quietly, this time, and with no attendant media outcry. It has been spilling gas condensate ever since; the press and public only found out yesterday.
Sinopec, the Chinese oil giant that owns the East Puffin gas platform, and its Australian partner AED Oil, have insisted that the leak is "minute" in comparison with the nearby Montara spill. In the absence of any other information, we have to believe them. But the incident highlights yet again the single biggest worry about the ongoing resources expansion off the Kimberley: the fact that the industry is still not held up to anything approaching the right level of accountability.
Greens MLC Robin Chapple rightly described it as "absolutely disgusting" that the public were kept in the dark for so long. After detecting the leak during a routine inspection, Sinopec reportedly told only those they were legally required to inform: the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Agency and the NT government.
With its big brother shaping up to be Australia's worst-ever oil spill, that is not a performance to inspire a great deal of faith. Today, environmental demonstrators daubed themselves in oil outside APPEA's Perth headquarters as a gesture of concern at the risks that the industry is taking with delicate ecosystems off the Kimberley.
Big cheeses in the industry might decry that as a hysterical reaction. But they underestimate public fears at their peril. Oil and gas firms can assure us that WA resources projects are subject to "world's best practice" until they're blue in the face; incidents like this only serve to reinforce a public impression that their words are complacent, if not downright arrogant.
It has become almost a cliché at this point to mention Barrow Island, unnecessarily placed in harm's way by the desire to trim a few million bucks off the cost of the Gorgon gas project. But we have to consider it because events like this undermine our confidence in an industry entrusted with the potential to do catastrophic harm if things go wrong.
Comments
I am not decrying your concern it is my concern also. Your colored language (designed to enflame your reader) does little for your case. There is no need to take sides in this argument. There was no explosive onset. The gas leaking from the well is toxic (Hydrogen Sulphide) poisonous.
Oct 30 08:02 pmGood luck with your Blog. Keeping everybody aware of the poor performance by the Oil Company is a worthwile endeavour.
Mate, "an industry" IS NOT "entrusted with the potential to do catastrophic harm if things go wrong" - that is a nonsensical statement. An industry is entrusted with keeping the risks of harm to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable. Potential IS ALWAYS THERE... it is an inherent property of matter, e.g. everything has potential to cause harm... So, can you do some research before jumping on a band wagon. You want to minimise the potential? Get people to stop usin
Oct 31 08:05 ama bias in the reporting. makes me question how accurate the "facts" are.
Oct 31 08:33 amIf this is "worlds best practice" where in big trouble, is this what we have to look forward to? Not once have I heard this company say "no expense will be spared, we will correct the problem and clean up our mess". Instead the best they can do is to say " It's unfortunate"... It's catastrophic to those that care about the environment and marine life.
Oct 31 11:18 amThe company is accountable. The more leaks, the less they can mine and therefore sell. It's not like they are doing it on purpose. Surely if the oil industry is all about profit like environmentalists keep telling us, exactly what is their motivation to let leaks and spills happen, costing them MILLIONS?
Nov 1 05:58 am"Hey Bill, the Exxon Valdez crashed. We lost big bucks and it's a PR disaster."
"Bob, that's FANTASTIC! Man, I was worried things were going well there for a secon