PTTEP, Indonesia to name third party to verify Montara oil spill damages

Thai oil company PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) and the Indonesian government have agreed to appoint an independent party to study potential environmental and economic damages caused by the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea in August 2009.

PTTEP?s executive vice president, Luechai Wongsirasawad, said the third party will further study and compare the evidence provided by both sides? claim.

The Indonesian government and PTTEP are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on mechanism of the dispute settlement by the end of this month.

Wongsirasawad said further verification or long-term observation will depend on the agreement and protocol with the Indonesian government as stated in the proposed MoU. The MoU was initially scheduled to be signed last month, however, political changes in Thai forced the Thai company to postpone the signing.

Indonesia earlier claimed the oil spill affected nine Indonesian regencies around Timor Sea, polluting 70,341 square kilometers of water and coastline.

However, PTTEP said it had found no verifiable evidence to support any of these claims. PTTEP said that based on a scientific study in Australia, there were no evidences of damage on marine biota and eco-system along the 5,000 km of Australian coast.

The total oil spill volume of 30,000 barrels during 72 days is far less than the volume of oil spill at Macondro in Mexican gulf in 2010, amounting to 53,000 barrels of oil per day during 85 days, or a total of 4.5 million barrels, PTTEP said. (josef/roffie)