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Concerns over a damaged well leaking crude oil into the Timor Sea near East Nusa Tenggara have prompted the government to dispatch a team to monitor the situation.

According to Ministry of Transportation, the spill, which occurred in Australia’s Montara oil field in August, has now encroached on the country’s maritime border, 51 kilometers off Rote Island.

Bobby Mamahit, the secretary of the ministry’s maritime department, said a team led by the Coast Guard Director Sato Bisri would meet with counterparts from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in East Nusa Tenggara.

The oil well, operated by Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production, is located 250 km northwest of the town of Truscott in Australia’s far north and 690 km west of Darwin, its northernmost capital. It began leaking on Aug. 21.

Officials in East Nusa Tenggara have urged the government to take action to prevent the spill from spoiling local waters.

Nelson Matara, vice chairman of the East Nusa Tenggara legislative council (DPRD), said the central government should coordinate with the regional administrations and the Navy. “This must be settled before the local people are directly affected,” he said.

On Sunday, East Nusa Tenggara Deputy Governor Esthon Foenay said that although no official report on the spill had been received, his party would work with the central government to prevent the spill from polluting nearby marine ecosystems.

“There’s no definite information on the oil spill yet, thus we hope for honesty from competent parties,” he said. “Although this is not our jurisdiction, we should anticipate it to prevent pollution which can destroy marine life in the Timor Gap. To prepare, we can coordinate with the central government and even the Indonesian Embassy in Australia if necessary.”

He acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of liters of crude oil had already polluted the Timor Sea and surrounding areas, threatening marine habitats and the local fishing industry.

Ferdi Tanoni, head of the West Timor Care Foundation (YPTB), noted that the Montara accident was not the first spill in the Timor Sea. He said his foundation had informed the government numerous times without a response.

Ferdi, who wrote a book about the scandal surrounding the carving up of the Timor Sea by Canberra and Jakarta, added that his group had already received a scientific report from Australia on the oil spill and its impact on the environment.

“Hopefully this will make the government aware of what we have been saying all along,” he said, “that aside from the right to natural riches in the Timor Sea, which has already been taken by Australia, West Timor’s people also have a universal interest in a sustainable Timor Sea environment and ecosystem, preserved for future generations.”

Ferdi said he hoped the incident would not turn into a catastrophic disaster like the infamous Exxon Valdez tanker accident in 1989 in which 42 million liters of oil was spilled.

“If this happens, people in West Timor, Rote-Ndao, Sabu and Alor will not be able to get fish and other marine life for consumption as they will already be extinct,” he said.