Woodside offers to help clean up Spill
12:51 AEST Tue Aug 25 2009
By Aleisha Preedy
Original Article
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=854035
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum Ltd has offered to help clean up a major oil spill off Western Australia's northwest coast.
Woodside chief executive Don Voelte told journalists after a briefing in Perth on Tuesday he had contacted the federal government to offer the use of a drill rig and emergency response team.
Oil and gas continues to spill from the West Atlas oil rig into the Timor Sea at the Montara development, about 250km off WA's Kimberley coast.
PTTEP Australasia, the Thai company that contracted the rig has said it would take at least seven weeks to stop the leak.
"We have contacted the government and have put all of Woodside's resources at their use if they want them," Mr Voelte said.
"We've got a rig they can take if they want a rig."
The cause of the leak, which began on Friday morning, remains unknown.
PTTEP said an oil rig, due to leave Singapore on Tuesday and stem the flow of oil and gas, would take 20 days to be towed to the site.
Woodside plans to expand its operations in the Browse Basin, offshore from the Kimberley region.