When we were in Melbourne, in a post dated 25 August, we wrote that, "The oil rig in the Timor Sea will leak for two more
months while they tow in another rig from Singapore to tap the well and
stem the leak." Those two months were up last week and the rig is now on fire.
The operator of the rig, the Thai company PTTEP Australasia, "will now make a fourth attempt on Thursday after it failed on Saturday to plug the leak." The spill has hit the Indonesian coast, and since our original post from Australia on 25 August, "it has leaked more than 400,000 liters of oil, gas and condensate into the Timor Sea at a rate reported as being from 300 to 1,200 barrels a day, and now covers an area estimated at 6,000 square kilometers."
Makes me think about our trip to Pirallahi Island near Baku, Azerbaijan, to see the ravages of Soviet-era environmental practices in the oil business. This photo is from there, and there are more just as lovely in the Azerbaijan Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
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