It could be months though before oil and gas escaping from the well in the Timor Sea is fixed. The government is expected to approve the multi billion dollar Gorgon Gas project on the North West shelf of Western Australia this week.
Presenter:Brigid Glanville
Jose Martins, chief financial officer from rig operator PTTEP;Julie Llewellyn is the manager of conservation programs with WWF; Michelle Grady, marine manager with Pew Australia
BRIGID GLANVILLE: The oil slick on the north west coast of Australia currently stretches 14 kilometres long and 30 metres wide.
It's leaking from a broken well from an oil rig three-and-half kilometres below the sea bed.
Drilling rigs similar to this one will be constructed under the proposed Gorgon gas field site which is located further south along the coast of WA.
Environmental group WWF Australia says the Gorgon project should now be reconsidered.
Julie Llewellyn is the manager of conservation programs with WWF.
JULIE LLEWELLYN: Industrial development on Gorgon adjacent to a nesting beach that is known to be one of the major rookeries for flat back turtles is going to have a severe impact on those flat back turtles and on that population.
We think that Gorgon should be moved to the mainland where you remove the risk of affecting flat back turtles.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: Environmental group Pew Australia says this oil spill shows that there needs to be greater emphasis put on protecting marine sanctuaries.
Michelle Grady the marine manager with Pew Australia says WA has been neglected.
MICHELLE GRADY: Thirty years ago the Great Barrier Reef was put in place precisely to stop the commencement of oil and gas through that region. It is clear from the science that has been done in the greater Kimberley marine region that the biodiversity is greater; that the area is even more important than the Great Barrier Reef and yet nobody in government has countered a level of protection and significance in decision making for this region as they did for GBR 30 years ago.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: Simon Mustoe the chairman of the ecology group for the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand agrees.
He says there needs to be more assessment of the marine life of the area near the current oil spill, and other areas further south where future energy projects are being planned.
SIMON MUSToe: Assessments of environmental impacts offshore in Australia is extremely lax compared to the terrestrial environment. We tend to accept on the size of the marine environment and the difficulties in cost of getting into it - mean that we shouldn't expect necessarily to get reasonable resolution data by which to sort of make decisions, approvals and develop management plans.
So we have an incident like this, we really don't know what we are dealing with.
BRIGID GLANVILLE: The decision on the $50 billion Gorgon project is expected to be announced this week. Meanwhile a massive clean up further north is now underway.
Jose Martins is the chief financial officer of the rig operator PTTEP Australasia.
JOSE MARTINS: AMSA are dealing with the oil spill so we expect that the position will remain under containment for some time. We expect that AMSA will continue and we have a contract with them and will continue to pay all their costs to contain environmental possession.
It is a fairly expensive exercise but we haven't gone into the costs at this stage and I don't want to comment on costs.
