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Film gives voice to people affected by Montara oil spill

Residents of Rote Island in East Nusa Tenggara have been living with sea waters polluted by a leak from an oil and gas rig in the Montara oil field, which occurred almost eight years ago in the Timor Sea

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Mon, July 3, 2017

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Film gives voice to people affected by Montara oil spill

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esidents of Rote Island in East Nusa Tenggara have been living with sea waters polluted by a leak from an oil and gas rig in the Montara oil field, which occurred almost eight years ago in the Timor Sea.

Until now, they have seen little attempt from the Indonesian and Australian governments to resolve the problem, prolonging the people’s suffering.

Australian freelance journalist-cum-filmmaker Jane Hammond has made a documentary on how Rote Island residents cope with thousands of barrels of oil contaminating their ocean.

The documentary, titled A Crude Injustice, focuses on the challenges they face, including health problems and losing their source of livelihood. “I made this documentary because I want to give voice to the people who were impacted,” Jane said in a recent discussion on the movie in Jakarta.

In August 2009, an explosion rocked a rig operated by Thailand-based oil and gas company PTTEP Australasia, spilling crude oil and gas in the surrounding waters. The leak continued for 74 days until the company succeeded in pumping mud into relief well.

The Australian Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism estimated that more than 2,000 barrels of oils had leaked each day to the surrounding water, until the company succeeded in capping the well three months later.

Daniel Sanda, a seaweed farmer living in Rote Island, did not know about the oil leak until he spotted a change in the quality of his seaweed harvest.

“I didn’t know where it come from. We faced a crop failure that year for our seaweed, which used to be seen as the best across the country,” Daniel said in the film.

A Crude Injustice also depicts fishermen as most impacted by the incident. After the leak, they had to travel further to catch fish, which required more time and effort. Due to the oil slick, marine life surrounding the island had disappeared. After years of struggle, fishermen started to import fish from neighboring Timor Leste.

Residents have also suffered from skin diseases caused by heavily polluted sea water.

“This [the impact on the people] is a story that Australian audiences and public need to hear. When they do, we might get some action, because I do believe that Australian people don’t like to see any sort of injustice,” Jane said.

Seven years after the incident in the Timor Sea, the legal representative of Rote Island residents from Care for West Timor Foundation, Ferdi Tanoni, filed a class action lawsuit at the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney. Representing around 13,000 fishermen and seaweed farmers, Ferdi demanded the company pay compensation for losses incurred by the leak.

The lawsuit added that the Australian government should also be held accountable for the accident, as it allegedly released PTTEP without giving the company a heavy punishment.

The Indonesian government has also sued the company, demanding that it pay US$2 billion for damages caused by the oil spill. “The environmental damage is greater than depicted in the movie, especially on the coral reefs,” Ferdi said. “We don’t know how long it would take to repair them all.” (kuk)

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