About 7,000 fishermen in East Nusa Tenggara province have been affected by the spill from the Thai-operated West Atlas rig, which has dumped thousands of barrels of oil into the Timor Sea since August 21, the group said.

"After the leak started the fishermen's income dropped 40 percent but since last week it's been 80 percent lower," said Ferdi Tanoni of the West Timor Care Foundation, which supports poor fishermen in eastern Indonesia.

"Before this incident, they were able to catch about 100 red snapper a night. But now it's extremely difficult to even get 20 fish."

The PTTEP Australasia-operated rig caught fire Sunday during an attempt to stop the leak, engulfing the deck and well-head platform some 250 kilometres (155 miles) off the Australian coast.

Environmental group WWF has said the spill is "one of Australia's biggest environmental disasters".

It says more than 400,000 litres (over 105,670 gallons) of oil have been spilt, generating a slick spanning 10,000-25,000 square kilometres (up to 9,650 square miles) that threatens animals including dolphins and sea turtles.

earlier related report
Australian oil rig will burn until leak capped: company
A massive oil rig fire burning out of control off Australia's northwest coast cannot be stopped until a well that has been leaking for 10 weeks is capped, officials warned Monday.

The West Atlas rig caught fire Sunday during the latest attempt to stop the leak, which has dumped thousands of barrels of oil into the Timor Sea since August 21.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the rig's Thai-based operators PTTEP Australasia would make another attempt Monday to stop the spill by filling the well with heavy mud.

"Therefore removing the source of gas which is fuelling the fire," he said.

PTTEP said stopping the leak was the only way to extinguish the blaze engulfing the deck and well-head platform some 250 kilometres (155 miles) off the coast.

"The measures which we have been able to take so far can only mitigate the fire, they will not stop the fire," the company's chief financial officer Jose Martins said.

"The best way to stop the fire is to complete the well-kill and stop the flow of oil and gas at the surface of the H1 well, cutting off the fuel source for the fire."

Ferguson said the accident, the first major incident in the past 25 years of offshore drilling, had "clearly had an impact on the standing of the oil and gas industry in Australia".

"And I simply say that once the well is filled, the platform is made safe, I will conduct a full and independent enquiry to actually assess the cause of the incident and the manner in which it has been handled over the last 10 weeks," he said.

Environmental groups have criticised the government's handling of the spill, saying it is threatening bird and marine life off Western Australia's resource-rich northern coast.

PTTEP said the company was focusing on the safety of its staff, bringing the fire under control and plugging the leak.

"Presently there are many unanswered questions, including what caused the fire," Martins told reporters in Perth on Sunday.

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