Never again! – send your message to the Kimberley oil spill Inquiry

The recent Kimberley oil spill was Australia’s worst rig-based oil spill and possibly our worst oil spill ever. It raised many questions about the petroleum# industry’s operations in pristine environments – and government’s management of it.

        #petroleum is a mixture of gaseous, liquid and solid hydrocarbons known as gas, oil and condensate.

The recent West Atlas oil spill in the Kimberley was Australia’s worst rig-based oil spill and possibly our worst oil spill ever.

Scientists, politicians and environmental groups called for a Commission of Inquiry into this disaster to investigate its cause and all aspects of the responses by the company, the industry and the government. The Commission, called the Commission of Inquiry - Montara Well Head Platform Uncontrolled Hydrocarbon Release - was recently established by the Rudd government and will be taking public submissions up until December 22, 2009.

This Commission is your chance to have a formal say about the Kimberley oil spill.  The Wilderness Society will be making a submission and we also urge you to tell the Commission that you want protection, not pollution for our Kimberley marine wilderness. Take Action!

The submission of the Wilderness Society focuses on three main areas:

1.    The lack of protection of our pristine Kimberley marine waters and the national and global significance of marine wilderness.

The seas off the Kimberley coast are internationally recognised as one of the last great unspoiled marine environments in the world. These shallow water tropical ecosystems are home to globally significant populations of internationally threatened species (e.g. whales and turtles).  Yet, less than 1% of our Kimberley marine waters are protected in marine sanctuaries. The oil spill was estimated to have affected 50 000 square km of seas off the Kimberley and oil slicks came within 69km* off Australia’s coast.

2.    The impact of developing a huge new petroleum industry on Australia’s moral and global responsibility in reducing carbon emissions for the prevention of further climate change.

To give the planet its best chance of long term survival the current scientific thinking supports keeping global temperature increases to less than 2°C, above which the impacts will be extremely damaging. Development of the Browse Basin gas resource off the Kimberley coast alone will create a minimum of 10 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions each year for Australia and prevent Australia from reaching its targets and meeting its global climate change responsibilities.

3.    The failure of the petroleum industry to adequately prevent and then address Australia’s worst rig oil spill in a timely fashion.

Up to 23 million litres of oil and condensate was spilled into the Timor Sea off the Kimberley from August 21 to November 3. The company, PTTEP said they didn’t know exactly how much petroleum polluted our Kimberley seas but their estimates of flow rates were much lower than those suggested in Senate debates.

PTTEP took 74 days to plug the flow temporarily and spent 3 weeks towing a repair rig to the site whilst declining the offer of another rig nearby. The company made several failed attempts to plug the leak and aborted other attempts over several months. Yet their practices were considered to be “world’s best practice” by the petroleum industry. Clearly accidents will happen and when they do the petroleum industry cannot stop the pollution quickly.

Once petroleum is released into the sea it cannot be easily contained or removed. Thus, any “cleanup” is only partial leaving behind petroleum polluting the marine ecosystem. And the more petroleum left, the longer the time taken to break down as petroleum is naturally digested by specialised bacteria.  Also, there is no clear science on the best methods to “cleanup” oil spills. Dispersants, a mix of toxic chemicals that kill coral spawn, were used in the “cleanup” of this oil spill and this procedure has been criticised by leading scientists.

TAKE ACTION

1. Please fill out the cover sheet required for all submissions and add personal messages to the following standard submission: Download MS Word Doc Submission here (48KB)

2. Send your email to the Commission of Inquiry (submissions@montarainquiry.gov.au ), you will be sending a strong message to the Federal Minister of Mines and Energy, Martin Ferguson about development of the petroleum industry off our pristine Kimberley.

3. If you have further Inquiries about the submission, go to: www.montarainquiry.gov.au

           ><(((*>   The marine life of the Timor Sea thank you!  <*)))><