The fire is out but the scaring is worst

The company responsible for an oil well that spewed its contents into the Timor Sea for more than two months says it knows what caused the environmental disaster.

But PTTEP Australasia chief financial officer Jose Martins has refused to reveal what the reasons for the Montara oil well spill and West Atlas rig fire are.

The well began spilling oil on August 21, while the fire broke out on the rig on Sunday. The clean-up effort was hampered by the time it took to get a second rig in place to drill a relief well, while it also took several attempts to finally stop the leak yesterday.

"Yes we do (know the causes), there's a range of causes but we're not going to go into it," Mr Martins told ABC Radio.

"There's going to be a proper legal process that would be undertaken to find out what caused the leak.

He also revealed he expected an insurance claim to recover costs of the incident to be "much higher" than the $170 million it had cost the company so far, to take into account costs of the rig fire.

The clean-up has cost the company about $5 million so far, but this could also rise, Mr Martins said.

PTTEP would not request any federal government help.

The clean-up was expected to take another two months, but it could take up to seven years to work through the environmental effects of the disaster, Mr Martins said.

PTTEP was prepared to be paying for the incident for several years.

Engineers would attempt to plug the well soon, and when that happened a relief well drilled to plug the leak could then be abandoned.

Despite the effects of the incident, Mr Martins refused to apologise.

The company was "confident" it was not to blame.

"The accident shouldn't have happened in the first place," Mr Martins said.

"We regret what's happened and I think the rest will have to come out in the inquiry.

Garrett brushes off oil spill criticism

The Federal Government has rejected Opposition criticism of its response to a large oil spill off Western Australia's north-west coast.

Oil has been leaking from an oil rig in the Timor Sea for more than two months and attempts to plug it have so far failed.

The Opposition says it is concerned about the environmental damage and says the Government is not doing enough to prevent an environmental disaster.

A spokesman for the Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, says the Government has had monitoring teams on site from the beginning and has put in place long-term monitoring plans.

The company responsible for the oil rig says it will make another attempt at plugging the leak tomorrow.

Five new exploration licences and access to several oilfields in Australian waters is rewarded to PTTEP

The ongoing Montara / West Atlas oil spill in the Timor Sea off Western Australia is now in its 62nd day. So far, three attempts to intercept and plug the leaking well have failed. Another attempt should happen within a day. A MODIS / Terra satellite image taken on October 21 - exactly two months after the blowout and spill began - shows slicks and sheen covering 2,600 square miles and approaching within 35 miles of the Kimberley coast.

Dark patches at center are discontinuous slicks and sheen, coming within 35 miles (30 nautical miles) of the Australian coast. Other dark patches to the south and southwest may be a combination of slicks and sheen obscured by calm, low-wind conditions. Bright patch to right of slicks is intense area of sunglint reflection. Clouds are scattered throughout this image, especially over Western Australia's rugged Kimberley Coast. Ashmore and Cartier Islands are aqua blue spots in the upper left.

THE company responsible for one of the biggest oil spills in Australian history was yesterday given access to more Australian oilfields, after winning support from the Rudd Government.

As its workers began their fourth attempt at fixing the Montara oil leak off the Kimberley coast, Thai company PTTEP yesterday took control of five new exploration licences and several oilfields in Australian waters.

Despite growing concerns about the impact of the two-month oil leak, the $11 million purchase of new oil assets was supported by Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board.

Purchased from fellow oil exploration company OMV, the licences give PTTEP control of an extra 1480 square kilometres of Australian waters near the leaking Montara rig, about 650 kilometres west of Darwin.

With the Montara leak yet to be resolved, the deal prompted concern from scientists and environmentalists such as University of West Australia associate professor of marine ecology Euan Harvey.

''They need to demonstrate they cannot impact on others' livelihoods or on the ecosystem, and at the moment they've demonstrated very clearly that they can't do that,'' he said.

Professor Harvey, who has spent recent years researching marine biology in the waters close to the spill, said the oil slick posed a big risk to the larvae of large finfish, which spawn in October.

Australian Marine Conservation Society spokesman Darren Kindleysides said PTTEP's track record should be taken into account before access was granted to new oilfields.

''Clearly PTTEP's track record has been pretty shabby in recent months,'' he said. ''Major questions still hang unanswered over why this spill happened and why it hasn't been plugged yet.''

Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Chris Smyth called the timing extraordinary.

Third attempt fails to plug oil and gas leak

A Thai-based oil company on Saturday failed in its third attempt to plug a leaking rig that has spilled thousands of barrels of crude into seas off Australia, alarming environmentalists.

PTTEP Australasia said it had missed its target for a relief well some 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles) below the seabed for the third time this month, and would try again in the coming days.

The leaking wellhead, some 25 centimetres (10 inches) wide, has been gushing off Australia's northwest since August 21 with estimates putting the discharge at 400 barrels a day.

"Setting up for each pass sequence takes between three and four days," PTTEP said in a statement.

"Implementing the pass sequence must then be undertaken during daylight hours for safety reasons.

"Once the leaking well is successfully intercepted, heavy mud will be pumped from the West Triton down into the relief well, displacing the oil, gas and water and stopping the flow."

The spill is reportedly Australia's worst since offshore drilling began more than 40 years ago, and ecologists fear the toxic cocktail of oil and dispersant chemicals could threaten marine and coastal species.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett, ex-frontman of rock band Midnight Oil, this week said PTTEP had agreed to pay for environmental monitoring of the area for at least two years.

The worst oil spill in Australia's history

It is eight weeks to the day since oil started leaking uncontrollably from the West Atlas drill rig in the Timor Sea, almost 3000 tonnes of oil are estimated to have polluted the ocean. This is one of the worst oil spills in Australia's history. The company responsible, PTTEP, has failed to cap the leak and failed to meet their promises of stopping the spill within 6-8 weeks, says the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS).

"Eight weeks, almost 3000 tonnes of oil and one failed promise later and still this toxic spill continues. While industry is hurrying to play down the impact of this disaster on the environment, public patience with the polluters is wearing very thin," said Darren Kindleysides, AMCS Director.

"The West Atlas spill has become a dirty stain on Australia's environmental reputation," he continued. "Over the last eight weeks we have learned three things: there is no such thing as risk free oil and gas production at sea; when things go wrong they go badly wrong; and our oceans are woefully under-protected from the oil and gas industry."

"We welcome the agreement between the company and Government to monitor the impacts of this spill for two years, but it cannot be described as a long-term program. The effects of major oil spills elsewhere in the world have been felt by wildlife, fisheries and the marine environment over a decade after the incidents. To begin to get a handle on the legacy of damage left by the West Atlas disaster, we will need monitoring to be funded for at least five years," concluded Kindleysides.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society is calling on the Australian Government to:

1. Protect the most important areas for marine wildlife by establishing large marine sanctuaries, setting these areas aside from oil and gas exploration.

2. Place a moratorium on opening up any more areas for oil and gas exploration until the current marine bioregional planning process is complete.

3. Ensure, under the polluter pays principle, that PTTEP foot the bill for at least five years, and preferably ten, monitoring the impacts of this spill on our ocean wildlife.

Second pass to intercept the leaking well

PTTEP will make a second pass to intercept the leaking well in the Montara field today, after initial attempts were blocked by hard rocks under the seabed.

The damaged well, which blew out on 21 August, has been leaking hydrocarbons into the Timor Sea for seven weeks.

Work continued today on the salvage operations after a fresh delay last Friday.

The sidetrack well being drilled by Seadrill’s jack-up West Triton to intercept the leak encountered a “very hard, deep rock formation” last week, slowing the work progress, PTTEP said.

The drilling team onboard West Triton will use a rotary steerable assembly to drill up to 2738 metres within several metres of the calculated target, before attempting the second pass.

The aim is to intersect a piece of steel casing 25 centimetres in diameter, 2.6 kilometres below the seabed.

Environmental groups claim the isolated area affected by the Montara leak is home to a number of endangered species.

Indonesia has dispatched a team of officials last week to monitor Australia's response to the oil spill, saying it feared the contamination could harm the country’s marine life.