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West Timor Sea `contaminated' by oil spill
A laboratory analysis conducted by the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda) has confirmed the West Timor Sea was contaminated by a crude oil spill
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laboratory analysis conducted by the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda) has confirmed the West Timor Sea was contaminated by a crude oil spill.
The test conducted on seawater samples taken on Oct. 10, 2009 indicated that a liter of seawater contained 107.2 milligrams of crude oil.
"We believe the pollution was caused by an oil spill from the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea," NTT Bapedalda head Alexander Oematan said in the provincial capital of Kupang on Wednesday.
According to him, the water samples were taken from several points along the Kolbano coast in Tuafanu village, Kualin district in the South Central Timor regency.
"We have sent a team to four locations again by using a vessel from the water police unit to ascertain the contents of crude oil in the Timor Sea," Oematan said.
The team will conduct analysis and take seawater samples at four locations in the south of Rote Island and around the waters of Pasir Island and Kolbano," he added.
He said the second lab test would be compared with the initial tests to determine whether or not oil in the Timor Sea had continued to increase. "We have given a detailed report on the pollution to the NTT governor and the Environmental Processing Center in Denpasar, Bali," he added.
From the test results, according to Oematan, his office had issued a recommendation to conduct further analysis and urgent measures to prevent the oil spill from spreading throughout the Timor Sea, including Indonesian waters.
The light crude oil leakage in the Timor Sea is reportedly still taking place at a rate of 64 tons, or 400 barrels per day from the Montara Well-head platform, located 130 nautical miles from Australia's northern coast.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and the Montara oil company have continued mitigation efforts to overcome the leak by deploying a number of vessels.
West Timor Care Foundation director, Ferdi Tanoni, told a press conference in Kupang the Indonesian government was slow in taking anticipatory measures to deal with the case. "The leak at the Montara oil platform has been discharging hundreds of thousands of liters of crude oil per day since Aug. 21. "The Thai operator of the Montara oil field, PTTEP Australasia, has yet been able to plug the leak despite carrying out four attempts."
Tanoni said he hoped the government would be more serious in resolving the problem, keeping in mind that 7,000 traditional fishermen and more than 10,000 coastal communities rely on the Timor Sea and seaweed cultivation for a living.
