WA – West Atlas Oil Leak Update

Professional fishermen off the Kimberley coast have reported sick and injured turtles and globules of yellow gunk in waters many nautical miles south of the West Atlas oil spill.

The part-owner of a fishing vessel working in the area, who did not want her name published, said reports were coming in from the vessel of a heavy chemical smell, globules of yellow gunk and wildlife coated in an oily sheen.

Oil has been spewing from the stricken West Atlas oil rig in the Timor Sea since August 21. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has been spraying dispersants on the oil in a bid to break up the toxic slick. Up to 500,000 litres of oil is estimated to be spilling into the ocean from the rig every day.

The part-owner said her fishing vessel had taken water samples for analysis and photos of the unusual oily gunk.

“The skipper has told me via the sat phone that the situation out there is very concerning,” she said.

“A few days ago there was a film of oil as far as the eye could see and yellow globules in the water from the dispersant that was being sprayed.

“We have a colleague who fishes out of Darwin. He fishes the top end of the Kimberley. He was saying the same thing, they could smell and taste this chemical smell and he was seeing sick fish and turtles.”

This morning Premier Colin Barnett said the State was making contingency plans to deal with the possibility of the slick reaching the WA coast.

He said the spill was a lesson for the Federal and State government to implement a quicker response to deal with such incidents because unlike the Mexican Gulf, offshore oil rigs around Australia were just kilometres away.

For more information on this article, please see orginal article and video replicated from Yahoo.com

WA – West Atlas Oil Leak Update

August 31, 2009: The oil spill off Western Australia is creeping to within 20 kilometres of the coast, covering an area populated by many endangered fish species, local observers and the Greens say.

The Federal Government maintained yesterday that the slick was still 150 kilometres offshore. Daily aerial surveys by the Australian Marine Safety Authority showed the slick drifting further out into the Timor Sea, the Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, said.

The West Atlas oil rig, operated by a Thai Government-owned company, is thought to have been leaking about 470,000 litres of oil a day since an accident caused the rig’s evacuation on August 21. The leak may not be stopped for another six weeks, the operator, PTTEP Australasia, said. This means that before the pipe is plugged the volume of crude oil escaping into the ocean may equal the amount released during the devastating 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

A Greens senator, Rachael Siewert, said she had seen what appeared to be ribbons of oil on the water 20 kilometres off Cape Voltaire, in northern Western Australia, and more than 200 kilometres from the stricken oil platform.

”There was an oily sheen that was visible in the tideline, the same as the sheen we saw around the rig itself,” Senator Siewert said. ”It’s wrong to say the coast is not at risk. The wind and tidal movements appear to be bringing the oil closer to the coast, and if it gets there it will have a significant impact.”

This article has been replicated from SMH.com.au
For the full article, please SMH.com.au
Ben Cubby

MODERN TECHNOLOGY USED TO TRACK OIL LEAK
Media Release from www.amsa.gov.au

Reports and data received from AMSA’s surveillance and monitoring flight today reveal the slick is now within a rectangular shaped area about 25 nautical miles (nm) x 70 nm.  It also reported the coverage of oil within the area has lessened.  The targeted aerial spraying of dispersant has been successfully enhancing the natural breakdown of the oil.

The slick has slightly pivoted anticlockwise around the West Atlas rig but is still within the vicinity of the rig itself. The expert aerial observer has confirmed the size of the slick through sophisticated onboard tracking and measuring equipment. AMSA has compared these observations with satellite imagery.

The movement of the slick has also been carefully monitored throughout the incident by satellite tracking buoys that AMSA deployed within hours of when the incident occurred. These buoys drift on the sea surface and send position data on an hourly basis that has proven to be a valuable tool to assist daily response planning.

The slick has not moved towards the coast overnight and AMSA has been in close contact with Western Australian authorities who last week put contingency plans in place with assets and equipment on standby if required.

The rig tender vessel Lady Gerda is now operating in the vicinity of the West Atlas rig.  This vessel has state of the art equipment on board and will spray dispersants on targeted oil patches. It will also conduct regular sampling and testing while on location.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority

What is an oil slick?

Oil slicks float on oceans and seas, covering them in a thick film of crude or refined petroleum oil. When freight ships carrying tens of thousands of tons of fuel crash, malfunction, or encounter harsh weather, they spill enormous amounts of oil into the water. Since oil and water don’t mix, the oil spreads out into a layer that hovers, as one mass, on top of the ocean.