Thai Drilling Firm Challenges Indonesia to Prove Oil Spill Damage

Sydney (News Today) - A Thai-based drilling company at the centre of one of Australia’s biggest oil spills Friday challenged Indonesia’s demands for compensation, calling for it to present “verifiable evidence”. Responding to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s vow to seek damages over the spill’s impacts on Indonesia’s coast, PTTEP Australasia said it was yet to receive any official or proven claim that oil had reached that far.

“PTTEP has received no claim for compensation related to reported impacts in Indonesian waters from oil from the Montara field between August and November last year,” said PTTEP’s chief financial officer Jose Martins. “The company has not been presented with any verifiable evidence of any damage.” Yudhoyono said affected Indonesians — primarily believed to be West Timorese fishermen — should receive “decent compensation” over last year’s Montara leak, which spilled thousands of barrels into the Timor Sea.

According to his transport minister, “direct losses” were estimated at around 500 billion rupiah (55 million dollars). Environmental group WWF says more than 400,000 litres (over 100,000 gallons) of oil were spilt, generating a slick spanning 10,000-25,000 square kilometres (up to 9,500 square miles).

West Timor’s Care Foundation, which supports poor fishermen in eastern Indonesia, estimates the spill as even larger and says it has affected the livelihoods of some 18,000 fishermen. But Martins said claims that the oil had reached Indonesia had been made “principally through the media”, adding that the Australian embassy in Jakarta issued a statement last November claiming the spill was far from the coast.

He said the statement described “small patches of weathered oil” in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, with some of it coming within about 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the country’s Roti Island. Martins added that PTTEP had attempted to clarify with the Australian authorities whether the oil had spread to Indonesia.

“If (compensation) claims are received, the evidence will be assessed and the claims treated on their merits,” he added.

Source : kompas

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