Environmental Activity

Environmental Action Update

Court Case Oil Spill: PTTEP

Court action up date:
The part of the trial dealing with lay evidence ran from 17 June to 11 July.
There will be two further phases of the trial, to deal with expert evidence.
Those phases are listed for 21 October to 1 November, and then between 2 to 13 December.

The Montara oil spill was an oil and gas leak and subsequent slick that took place in the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea, off the northern coast of Western Australia. The company responsible was PTTEP Oil & Gas and the slick which was released following the oil well blowout leaked from August through to November of 2009.

Operators lost control of a drilling rig that had blown and millions of gallons of crude oil was venting into the ocean unchecked. The size and potential ecological impact of the spill was understated in media and public dialogue. However the spill eventually reached Indonesia with fishermen claiming mass fish die-offs, skin diseases and human life.

The MUM Foundation’s long-term involvement with the waters and islands of Eastern Indonesia assisted us in generating media and public attention of the environmental outcomes to this highly biodiverse region of Indonesia.

The MUM team was able to gather water samples of the oil spill as evidence and proceeded to send them to the Greens Senator of Western Australia, Rachel Siewart.

MUM in response commenced a campaign to bring attention to the unfolding disaster in 2009 which included a series of emails to politicians, the Australian national broadcaster (the ABC), and other reputable media sources. MUM even confronted the company responsible for the spill.

MUM is pleased to announce the imminent start of a class action between PTTEP (Oil & Gas Company) and 15,481 Indonesian plaintiffs, sea-weed farmers in Nusa Tenggara Timur that started in June 2019.

Whatever the outcome, MUM recognises it as a watershed moment, the first case of its kind, heralding a new era in environmental stewardship and co-operation between two neighbouring nations.

Cc: ciu@environment.aov.au. news@news.com.au. intemationalrelations@abc.net.au
Subject: Ongoing report : Oil Spill reaches Rote Island - Monday 18th October 2009

Att: PTTEP Perth WA.

Dear ……

Just a quick heads up to advise you that the oil spill has just started to reach the island of Rote, it's slightly off shore this morning a few hundred yards out and is a yellowish foamy consistency as
reported to us earlier today. We will be able to provide you with photos later in the week. Our team will also try and bring a bottle of the water back for analysis.

More to follow

Jakarta Post April 4th 2019

Up date Govenment refuses out of court Settlement

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