Leaking oil rig on fire

Posted 6 hours 43 minutes ago 
Updated 4 hours 58 minutes ago

Oil spill: the West Atlas rig has been leaking oil since August. (AAP Image: PTTEP Australasia, supplied)

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Specialist fire crews are on their way to the leaking West Atlas oil rig in the Timor Sea which has caught alight.

Oil and gas first started leaking from the West Atlas rig off the north-west coast more than 10 weeks ago.

Since then the company reponsible, PTTEP Australasia, has being trying to intercept the hole using another rig, the West Triton.

After several failed attempts, the company says it was successful this morning.

While it was trying to fill the hole with heavy mud, the West Atlas rig and Montara well head platform caught fire.

All workers are reported to be safe and some staff are being evacuated to the West Triton rig.

In an interview with news agency AFP, a PTTEP Australasia spokeswoman said the leak had not been stopped when the fire broke out.

Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says he has told several agencies to do everything possible to stop the fire.

Mr Ferguson says the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority has been told to respond to the fire and Geoscience Australia has been put on standby to provide technical support.

The Federal Opposition's environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the Government must set up an emergency taskforce to deal with the situation.

"We have a leak, we have a fire, we have air pollution, we have marine damage, and now we have an increasing risk of a continuing oil leak which will be even more difficult to stop," he said.

Oil has been spilling into the Timor Sea at an estimated rate of 400 barrels a day since August 21.

PTTEP Australasia says efforts to stem the leak have already cost the company $167 million.

The Federal Government yesterday released a report revealing birds and marine species are at risk from the spill, but it says the full impact can not be immediately determined.

A second, smaller leak in the Timor Sea at East Puffin Field has been running for more than seven weeks, but was only made public last week