WHEN voters turn out on election day next week, it will be a significant dot on the calendar for more than one reason.
WHEN voters turn out on election day next week, it will be a significant dot on the calendar for more than one reason.
August 21 also marks the first anniversary of the day drillers at the Thai-owned Montara oilfield in the Timor Sea were forced to evacuate the West Atlas drilling rig after a devastating well blow-out.
For the next 10 weeks, an estimated 17,000 gallons of light crude and condensate spewed unchecked into the ocean daily while Montara’s Thai owner, PTT Exploration & Production Australasia, sought to stem the flow.
Finally, after 75 days and four unsuccessful attempts, a relief well finally intersected and plugged the damaged H1 well at Montara.
But not before the West Atlas rig had burst into flames and was destroyed in an eerie precursor to this year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Montara incident, rated Australia’s worst ever environmental disaster, trashed the reputation of the oil and gas industry in the eyes of a public already widely sceptical about the ethics and practices of international oil companies.
Meanwhile, conservationists bayed for a crackdown on exploration and development off the Western Australian coast, as itinerant fisherman as far afield as Timor and Indonesia demanded compensation for damage to their fishing grounds.
To get to the bottom of the disaster, in November the federal government convened a formal commission of inquiry headed by former senior federal bureaucrat David Borthwick.
But 12 months on, it remains unclear whether any lessons have been learned.
After receiving dozens of submissions and quizzing 12 individuals directly involved in the incident, Mr Borthwick handed his report to federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson on June 18.
The inquiry made a number of startling revelations, including that PTTEP had failed to test the integrity of the cement casing of the well, and failed to re-install a vital corrosion prevention cap. Both oversights proved critical to the resulting well blow-out.
Just as worrying, the Northern Territory government conceded it did not monitor compliance because, under the present system, it was up to the well operator to monitor compliance.
Despite pledging to act swiftly on the report’s recommendations, Mr Ferguson refused to make the report public, citing the possible impact on potential legal action against the company.
The calling of the federal election has further delayed any official response by government, with the Gillard government restricted by caretaker provisions pending the election outcome.
In particular, it has stalled Mr Ferguson’s plan for a single national oil industry regulator, superseding the existing system of shared responsibility with state agencies which undertake most of the hands-on work, such as monitoring.
For its part, the coalition also believes the inquiry report must be assessed before any decision is made on whether further regulation of the industry is warranted.
Still, the first good news in months came through last week, when the Environmental Protection Authority revealed its own detailed baseline survey of the Kimberley coastline did not detect any petroleum hydrocarbons or contamination.
But conservationists believe it is pure luck that the effect of the spill was not significantly worse and believe urgent action must be taken to tighten regulation of the sector and avert any repeat of the spill.
Instead, they believe both government and industry are guilty of adopting a business as usual approach to offshore development.
“A year on, our regulations are still the same, and our compliance regime is effectively still the same. We’ve seen vague promises of change, but haven’t seen any,” WA Greens senator Rachel Siewart told WA Business News.
“Just reading the (inquiry) transcripts indicates very strongly that we need to improve our compliance regime, our regulatory approach, our national oil spill response plan and national coordination of that.”
In particular, she said there was a clear need for more environmental expertise in the assessment process, more rigorous auditing, tighter contingency planning and modelling of potential spills, and better pre-development study of the baseline environment.
WWF Australia marine conservation manager Gilly Llewellyn said there needed to be a major overhaul of the regulatory regime, including the introduction of proscribed minimum industry standards for activities such as the drilling of subsea wells.
“There has been a winding back and a move towards greater self regulation, and I think the introduction of some fundamental prescription could bring back a base level of regulatory compliance and guidance,” he said.
“Certainly what emerged in the testimony was that there was a lot of question about what exactly does constitute good oilfield practice.”
Dr Llewellyn also believed greater regulatory focus needed to be placed on prevention, not just initiatives to deal with a spill once it has occurred.
Such suggestions have so far drawn a muted response from industry.
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association policy chief Mark McCallum said the findings of the Montara report should be considered carefully before there was any rush to take action.
“I think we’d welcome any suggestions the commissioner had, and make an assessment as to … whether they are likely to work or not,” he said, noting the Gulf of Mexico spill had occurred despite the US’s highly prescriptive drilling regulations.
But APPEA, which generally supports the creation of a single national regulator, also believed the inquiry had demonstrated the “potential for regulatory disconnects” and was eager that they be addressed, he said.
