PTTEP Admits Oil Spill Reached Indonesia

A year and a half ago an immense oil spill, rather similar to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, hit the Timor Sea when oil drilling company PTTEP Australasia had a blowout and explosion at one of its remote platforms. At the time, Indonesian coastal communities complained that the oil spill had reached their waters, wrecking the seafood harvests upon which they depend for nutrition and financial income.

At the time, PTTEP and its allies in the Australian government called the idea ridiculous. They said that it was certain that none of the oil spill had entered Indonesian waters.

Now, quietly, PTTEP has been forced to admit that the Indonesians were telling the truth after all. Confronted with clear evidence, PTTEP now admitted today that oil from the Timor Sea spill entered Indonesian waters.