GREEN GROUPS URGES OIL SPILL ACTION

An environmental action group says the delay in cleaning up an oil spill off Australia's north-west coast shows the shortcomings in the Federal Government's emergency planning for oil spills at sea.

But the Government say the spill, at the West Atlas mobile offshore drilling unit in the Timor sea, is smaller than first thought.

The incident occurred early Friday morning and 69 workers were evacuated from the site when oil and gas began leaking from the rig.

The slick is 14 kilometres long and 30 metres wide and is about 100 kilometres off the Western Australia coast.

Authorities on Saturday declared a 37-kilometre exclusion zone around the rig, which is owned by Norwegian company Seadrill and operated by Thai-based PTTEP Australasia.

John Dee from the environmental action group Do Something says urgent steps need to be taken.

"This is a particularly pristine marine environment and that's what makes this spill so concerning," he said.

"It's teeming with baby turtles at this time of year, it's a migratory whale route, and of course we need to make sure that this spill is contained because the Ashmore Reef is just 150 kilometres away.

"That's why the Government needs to make sure all efforts are made to ensure it's cleaned up as soon as possible."

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says the slick is beginning to evaporate naturally and chemical dispersants will be used to speed up that process.

He has told Channel 10 that it poses no threat to the Australian coastline.

"The oil spill is not as big as first thought. It's in the Montara [oil] field," he said.

"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is on the job. They're in charge of the clean-up and the company itself has flown in the necessary technical advice to work out how they cap the developed well as quickly as possible."

Size assessment

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says a search and rescue aircraft has just left Darwin to assess whether an oil slick off the Western Australian coast has grown overnight.

The Authority's Tracey Jiggins says a plane was sent out this morning to assess the situation, but it is expected the spill has stayed the same size.

She says a Hercules aircraft carrying chemicals to start dispersing the oil spill has also just left Darwin.

"What they'll do is they'll go out and assess the situation all the safety measurements and things will be put in place to make sure it's safe to go," she said.

"Our information is that the slick has remained quite constant. It appears to be evaporating at the same rate as it's leaking.

"We don't expect that will have changed overnight but we'll have to wait until those aircraft get on scene and feed back information about how it's going this morning."

She says a decision will then be made on how much chemical will be sprayed, with the aircraft allowed to fly within two nautical miles of the rig.

Jose Martins from PTTEP Australasia says any environmental impact will be minimal.

"The oil is dispersing very quickly, so the rate of dispersement [sic] is quite quick," he said.

"Therefore there's no visible endangerment to any wildlife at this stage, and it's quite far from any land. It is a remote location."

Fix 'could take days'

He says a group of experts is trying to work out how to fix the leak.

"Until we can get a proper report ... only then we can tell you what the next stage is and how long this will take to repair," he said.

Mr Martins says the leaking gas poses a major fire risk, making it difficult for anyone to access the site.

"We have engaged international experts and they will be given whatever resources they need to bring the situation under control," he said.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/