PTT Exploration & Production Pcl is making a fourth attempt to plug a leaking oil well in the Timor Sea

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- PTT Exploration & Production Pcl


is making a fourth attempt to plug a leaking oil well in the


Timor Sea and extinguish a blaze engulfing a drilling rig.





“The operation is still ongoing,” Roley Myers, a Perth- based


spokesman for PTTEP, said by phone. Myers said the


Bangkok-based company will likely give an update later today


on the operation to use specially prepared heavy mud to plug


the Montara well, which has been leaking oil for more than 10 weeks.





Thailand’s only publicly traded oil-explorer has estimated that


up to 400 barrels of oil a day has been seeping into waters off


the Australian coast. WWF-Australia has called the spill an


environmental disaster and has reported seeing dolphins, birds


and sea turtles swimming in the oil slick. PTTEP fell to the lowest


in three months in Bangkok trading.





The Thai company “is still using every effort to control and


minimize the impact of the fire incident,” Chief Executive


Officer Anon Sirisaengtaksin said in a statement to the


Thai stock exchange today. PTTEP has insurance cover


of about $270 million, he said.





PTTEP dropped as much as 4 percent to 131.5 baht, adding


to yesterday’s 5.5 percent slide. The stock traded at 133.5 baht


as of 12:30 p.m. lunch break.





Out of Control’




A fire erupted on Nov. 1 as the Bangkok-based company


pumped mud into the well to try to stem the flow. The blaze


at the West Atlas drilling rig was “out of control,” Jose Martins,


a director of the company’s Australian unit, said yesterday in


Perth. Losing the rig, which may collapse into the ocean, would


delay the start of extracting an estimated 35,600 barrels of oil


a day from the Montara field.




Australia’s Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson told


reporters an investigation into the spill will take place after the


well is plugged and the fire is extinguished. PTTEP has engaged


“world-leading” companies to help in the effort, he said yesterday.




A daily flow of 300-400 barrels of oil since the leak started Aug. 21


would make the spill the third-biggest in the nation’s history, based


on figures from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Web site.


The company has failed on prior three attempts to stem the flow.





Paying Costs




PTTEP has said it will pay the maritime safety authority’s costs


for cleaning up and controlling the spill. The company has set aside


A$177 million ($160 million) as provisions against costs for the leak.





The world’s largest population of humpback whales, about 22,000,


is found along the northwestern coast, according to a survey by whale


researchers Richard Costin and Annabelle Sandes.





Tourism Australia describes the region as “one of the world’s


last true wilderness areas.” Ashmore Reef, which supports sea


snakes, dugongs and marine turtle nesting sites, was feared in


reach of leaking oil in the spill’s early days.





Seadrill Ltd., the Norwegian oil-rig company that owns the


West Atlas, said yesterday that the drilling unit wouldn’t likely


be used again because it is severely damaged.





While the incident has created bad publicity for PTTEP,


the negative impact on the stock may be short-term because


the Montara field is relatively small compared with the


company’s overall production assets, Andrew Gillan, who helps


oversee about $41 billion in Asia for Aberdeen Asset Management Group


and holds the stock, said in Bangkok today.





Australia has rejected claims that oil from the spill has reached


Indonesia’s coastal waters, the Australian Associated Press said


in a story posted on the Sydney Morning Herald’s Web site today.





The Australian Embassy in Jakarta said only small patches of


non-hazardous “weathered oil” posing no significant threat to


the marine environment had been detected in Indonesia’s


exclusive economic zone, AAP said.





Indonesian conservationists say villagers and fishermen in the


country’s East Nusa Tengarra province have complained that


oil from the spill is affecting their health and killing fish, AAP reported.


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