Indonesian Environment Minister Mohammad Gusti Hatta has urged the Australian government soon sign an accord on payment of compensation over the 2009 Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea.
The minister said yesterday that the accord's signing has now been postponed again indefinitely, having previously been scheduled to take place on August 29. According to Hatta, the figure Indonesia had forwarded as compensation for the impact of the Montara spill was rejected by Australia on the ground it was too high.
The Indonesian government had calculated the direct losses suffered by local fishermen due to the oil spill's polluting effect, general economic losses, as well as indirect losses stemming from damage done to coral reefs, mangroves and coastal ecosystems. PTTEP Australasia (PTTEPAA), the company that had drilled the oil well where the spill originated has reportedly performed its own calculation of the losses suffered by Indonesia. Hatta said that PTTEPAA is planning to make up for Indonesia's losses through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program and had told journalists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) it would thereby be compensating Indonesia.
"That is unacceptable to us because there is a difference between CSR and damages," said Hatta.
The Montara spill occurred on August 21, 2009, when a PTTEPAA oil well in the West Atlas Block developed a leak, releasing 40 million litres of crude oil, which were carried by sea currents into the Timor Sea. The oil spill eventually polluted more than 70,000 square kilometres of East Nusatenggara province's coastal waters. The Australian government's Montara Inquiry Commission subsequently concluded that the oil spill would not have happened if PTTEPAA had followed accepted standard operating procedures.
