The Wire

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has released a long-awaited report today into Australia’s worst offshore oil spill. The Montara well leaked more than 400 barrells of oil last year into the Timor Sea off Western Australia’s north-west coast. The inquiry found that the well’s owner, PTTEP Australasia, did not have the right oilfield practices in place, but the NT Department of Resources should have picked up on this. The report’s recommendations include the need for a national regulator, but Julie Llewelyn, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s conservation programs, told The Wire’s Ryneisha Bollard that marine sanctuaries were left out.