Oil rig and platform catch fire during attempt to plug leak

A fire has started on an oil rig off the northwest coast of Australia that has been leaking into the Timor Sea for 10 weeks.

Rig operator PTTEP Australasia said Sunday that no one had been injured and nonessential workers were being evacuated after the fire broke out on the West Atlas rig and Montara wellhead platform.

The fire started while workers made another attempt to plug the hole that has been leaking an estimated 400 barrels of oil a day since August 21.

The oil slick from the rig, about 250 kilometres off Australia’s north-west coast, now stretches across thousands of kilometres of ocean.

Indonesia said this week that thousands of dead fish and clumps of oil have been found drifting near its coastline.

 

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