http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/10/2009102442228460552.htmlTimor Sea oil spill sparks concern
Millions of litres of oil pouring into the Timor Sea from a ruptured well is causing an environmental disaster that will continue to unfold for years to come, campaigners say.
A fourth attempt was made on Friday to plug the West Atlas oil platform off Western Australia, amid claims the amount of spillage could be much higher than previously estimated.
PTTEP, the Thai based company that owns the rig, has thus far failed to stop the flow of sweet light crude oil, gas and condensate from the Montara wellhead, 250km northwest of the Truscott air base in Western Australia's Kimberley region.
PTTEP estimates the well is leaking 400 barrels of oil a day, but the Australian government said the maximum flow could be as much as 2,000 barrels a day.
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"I've always been sceptical about the company's claim of 300-400 barrels, because they could never back it up."
Marine life threatened
Satellite images show a surface slick estimated at 15,000sq km, stretching into Indonesian waters.
"We were in an area that is teeming with marine life ... It was sickening, because we were seeing dolphins surfacing in the oil and birds feeding in it," Gilly Llewellyn of the World Wildlife Fund said following a survey of the slick.
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The leak, which began on August 21, is more than two and a half kilometres below the sea bed.
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goodby Timor Sea life