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Offshore oil production involves environmental risks, most notably oil
spills from oil tankers (fig. 1.11) or pipelines transporting oil from the platform to
onshore facilities, and from leaks and accidents on the platform.
Figure 1.11 – Tanker shipwreck
An oil well in the Timor Sea, off the coast of Western Australia (Montara,
2009), began leaking, and the platform subsequently caught fire. The well spewed
oil for more than two months, leaking as much as 2,000 barrels a day (6,216,000
gallons) for 74 days before it was capped, making it one of the worst spills in
Australian history (fig. 1.12).
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