Australian Oil Rig Blaze Remains Stable

An uncontrollable fire 155 miles off Australia's coast, gushing tons of crude oil into Timor Sea over the past 10 weeks, is now under control. The West Atlas rig, owned by Atlas Drilling (S) Pte Ltd, caught fire Sunday during the latest attempt to stop the leak which has dumped thousands of barrels of oil into the sea since August 21. The rig's operator, PTTEP Australasia reported that the only way to extinguish the blaze was to stop the leak by pumping heavy mud into the leaking well. PTTEP had attempted to plug the leak 5 times before it's success Tuesday, stopping the main fire at the wellhead platform. In an official statement, PTTEP reported that the well is under control and the fire is extinguished. An ALERT Well Control specialist team on the West Triton rig, 2 kilometers from West Atlas, is continuing preparations to reboard the West Atlas rig and well head platform. The team will conduct a damage assessment, hoping the platform will be reboarded by next week following a safety assessment and approval by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority. Australian Resources and Energy Minister assures efforts to work closely with Australian Maritime Safety Authority will continue and an independent inquiry to assess the cause of the incident and how it was handled over the 10 weeks will also be conducted.