An oil rig off the coast of Australia is currently engulfed in flames, and in danger of collapsing into the ocean.
Flames are shooting high into the air off the West Atlas platform, which has been leaking oil and gas into the Timor Sea for eight weeks.
Nobody has been injured in the blaze, although workers needed to be rescued and flames continue to bellow from the rig. PTT Exploration and Production, the firm which operates the rig, has claimed it cannot extinguish the flames while it is being fed by a gas leak.
WA Premier Colin Barnett told WA Today described the leak as a “very serious failing in the petroleum industry”.
Clearly this is getting worldwide publicity and it’s not the sort of publicity the Australian petroleum industry would want,” Barnett said.
“And with 70 per cent of that industry off Western Australia’s coast, it’s not the sort of publicity we (WA) want. It’s a very serious oil leak and now a very dangerous and serious situation on that rig,” he added.
