"There are many steps to be undertaken before we can make full assessments of the status of the platform and development work can be resumed in 2010 to safely bring the Montara field into production," PTTEP's Australia Director Jose Martins said Wednesday, Upstream Online reports.

The spill began Aug. 21 after an accident on PTTEP Australasia's offshore H1 well about 200 kilometers off the remote Western Australian coast, known for its rich marine environment.

While PTTEP said 400 barrels of crude oil were probably leaking daily from the Montara well into the Timor Sea, some experts suggested that it was leaking as much as 3,000 barrels a day.

The leak from the H1 well was stopped Nov. 3 after more than 3,400 barrels of heavy mud was pumped down the relief well from the nearby West Triton rig.

While the situation has remained stable since then, the plugging operations were necessary to secure the H1 well.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday that PTTEP Australasia has revealed to authorities the reasons behind the leak.

PTTEP Australasia told the Montara Commission of Inquiry that a pressure containment cap was not on one of the four oil wells it was drilling at the time. The cap was reported as being in place when in fact it had not been installed on the Montara H1 Well, causing it to burst, the Herald reports.

"When the work on the wells recommenced in August 2009, PTTEP discovered that the 340mm pressure-containing corrosion cap required by the drilling program had not been installed during the suspension of the H1 Well in March 2009," the company's submission says.

The Commonwealth Department of Environment's submission to the Montara Commission also revealed that PTTEP did not submit an oil spill contingency plan, a condition attached to the project's environmental approval, until months after the company had drilled five wells on the Montara platform in January 2009, the Herald reports.

Hearings are expected to take place between Feb. 22 and March 31 in Canberra.

The spill is estimated to have cost the Thailand-based company at least $170 million.

Conservationists estimated that the oil had covered an area of at least 5,800 square miles in the Timor Sea. The area surrounding the Montara development is home to a wide variety of marine wildlife, including humpback whales, several species of dolphin and sea turtles, as well as migratory seabirds.

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