The Montara Oil Spill: Implications and Future Challenges for the Offshore Petroleum Regulatory Regime
Article from: OGEL 3 (2012), in OGEL Ten Years Special Issue: Internationalisation of Energy Law
Introduction
The blowout at the Montara wellhead platform (WHP) on 21 August 2009 was Australia's third largest oil spill. It is the worst of its kind in Australia's offshore petroleum industry history, with oil and gas flowing unabated into the Timor Sea for a period of just over 10 weeks. The Montara oil spill demonstrated significant shortcomings in the environmental and safety regimes in relation to the regulation of well integrity in Australia. Following the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the spill, other reviews and reports into offshore petroleum safety regulation, and the ...