Bangkok--3 Sep--PTTEP
PTTEP Australia (PTTEP AA), a subsidiary of the Thai-listed PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited today (2 September 2010) confirmed the Government of Indonesia that it has not accepted any claims for compensation relating to the claimed impacts of oil released from the company’s Montara field in the Timor Sea last year. PTTEP CEO and President Anon Sirisaengtaksin said that the letter of claim and attached documents contained no verifiable evidence to support the claim.
In July and August 2010, representatives from PTTEP AA met in Perth with an Indonesian government delegation on the issue. The latest round of talks took place on 26 August when the Government of Indonesia submitted the letter claiming for compensation with a PowerPoint summary of claim. No verifiable scientific evidence was provided with the claim summary or has yet been provided to support the claims made in the presentation. It was agreed that all data and evidence would need to be analyzed by appropriate parties before PTTEP will consider the claim.
PTTEP believes that the Montara incident had no effect on Indonesia because the company was able to control the situation. It also joined hands with agencies under the Government of Australia to continuously monitor and evaluate the effect of the oil released from Montara field and found that it was limited to areas around the field. An independent scientific study which was recently released by the Environmental Protection Authority of Western Australia showed that no oil from Montara reached the WA coast.
The company is funding, in cooperation with the Australia Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA), scientific studies from the long term environmental monitoring program. The various studies are being conducted by a range of recognized tertiary and private research groups. The result will be released to the public when completed by DEWHA.