The West Triton jackup drilling rig arrived at the Montara Field in an attempt to plug the oil leak on 11 September 2009."Finally, help arrives at stricken West Atlas oil rig", The Sunday Times. Oil and gas producer, Woodside Petroleum Ltd offered to assist PTTEPAA in cleaning up the oil spill with the use of a rig closer to the spill site. However, PTTEPAA rejected the Woodside offer on the basis of "safety reasons". The Woodside rig was a semisubmersible drilling rig and, as it floats on the sea surface, was not deemed as a suitable platform for the relief well. A jackup rig was required because it could be secured to the sea floor giving better stability and had the capacity to pump large volumes of heavy mud needed to stop the leak. On 6 September, the plugging of the oil leak was delayed further by a broken towline to the mobile oil rig being towed in from Indonesia by PTTEPAA. On 7 September, the Australian Federal Government announced that it was suspending the normal approval process to fast track stopping the leak at the West Atlas oil rig. PTTEP Australasia initially said it could be just days before the leak was brought under control, but then said that the oil leak would continue for eight weeks until they could bring in another mobile offshore rig, West Triton, to drill a hole into the leaking oil well, and pump mud in to alleviate pressure to stop the oil flow.
