RI TO SEEK AUSTRALIAN COMPENSATION FOR TIMOR SEA OIL SPILL

Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, Dec 30 (ANTARA) - Indonesia is to ask Australia for compensation for environmental damage done to the Timor Sea by an oil spill from an explosion in the Montara oilfield, a minister said.

"We have completed calculation of our material loss due to the Timor Sea's contamination and will ask the Australian government for compensation soon," Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said here on Wednesday.

Hatta said he had recently informed the Australian environment minister by phone that Indonesia was calculating all material losses caused by the pollution of the Timor Sea. The Australian government was expected to handle the case seriously to prevent more damage in the impacted areas.

The minister said the Australian government had tried their best to solve the problem. However, Indonesia needed to take firm action by seeking compensation based on international law.

Some 500,000 liters of crude oil spilled into the Timor Sea following an explosion at the Montara oil field on August 20, 2009. As a result of the explosion, a lot of coral reefs and fish in the area were polluted.

Following the incident, fishermen in Oesapa in the district of Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, found thousands of dead fish floating in an area at 11-39 degrees southern latitude and 124-30 degrees western longitude in the Timor Sea.

The fishermen also discovered balls of crude oil in the waters around 20 miles from Tablolong beach, West Kupang, or around 30 miles from Kolbano southern coast of Timor Tengah Selatan.

"Some of the dead fish are already in a state of decay. We had taken some to keep for use as evidence but later we threw them back into the sea because we could not stand the smell," Gab Oma (33), a fisherman from Oesapa, Kupang, who had arrived from fishing in the area, told reporters recently.

East Nusa Tenggara Governor Frans Lebu Raya had earlier demanded responsibility from the oil field operator PTTEP Australasia regarding the pollution.

"The Australian government, in this case the Montara oil field operator, is responsible for the problem," Governor Frans Lebu Raya said in Kupang last October.

The oil field is also located near Pasir (Sand) Isle (Ashomore Reef) where Indonesian traditional fishermen often operate.

Some 7,000 traditional fishermen and more than 10,000 coastal communities rely on the Timor Sea and seaweed cultivation for a living.