Offshore drilling disaster: West Atlas Oil Rig now on Fire Submitted by Unenergy on November 2, 2009 - 18:10 On 21 August 2009, West Atlas oil rig owned and operated by Thai company PTTEP Australasia drilling in the Montara oil field offshore 200km from Broome, a West Australian town famous for its pearling and tourist industry, suffered a failure. A blogger from another site wrote an article on 21 October detailing continuing failed attempts to stem the flow of oil from a rig in pristine marine area of the North West Coast of Australia. oil spill, fire, oil, Australia, Montara, PTTEP