Indonesian Team to Attend Montara Oil Spill Trial in Sydney
14 December 2018 13:19 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government will dispatch five representatives to attend Montara oil spill trial in Sydney, Australia.
The case implicates Thai oil company Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP).
“Our team comprises of five individuals who will attend a trial in Sydney. They will depart this week,” the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said on September 19 in Central Jakarta.
Luhut said that five Indonesian representatives include experts in safety engineering from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, officials of Flores District and international law of the sea expert Hasyim Djalal.
PTTEP’s Montara oil field blew out on August 29, 2009, spilling 300,000 liters of oil into the ocean in ten days.
Almost 90 percent of Indonesian waters in the Timor Sea have been polluted by the oil spill and other hazardous substance from the Montara rig.
Seven years later, around 13,000 seaweed farmers of the Rote Island and Kupang District, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) filed a class action lawsuit with the Federal Court of Australia against the PTTEP Australasia. Class representative Daniel Sandara has challenged the company over oil pollution in the Timor Sea.
In January 2017, Australia Federal Court in Sydney approved the class action lawsuit status. The lawsuit claims seaweed farmers have suffered harvest failures due to Montara oil spill.
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