$200m action launched over Montara spill

Almost seven years after an explosion at a Montara oil rig saw millions of litres of "toxic sludge" burst forth into the Timor Sea, more than 13,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers are launching a class action.

Claiming more than $200 million in damages, class action specialists Maurice Blackburn Lawyers are set to file the case in Sydney's Federal Court on Wednesday.

Describing the economic impact of the spill on the farmers in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara region as "disastrous", Managing Principal of Maurice Blackburn in NSW, Ben Slade alleged it was clear the operator of the oil rig, PTTEP Australasia, had cut corners.

"Our investigations show that the operator of the oil rig has a serious case to answer for cutting corners that endangered lives, the environment and the livelihoods of thousands of seaweed farmers," he said in a statement.

"There was nothing that these farmers could do to protect themselves against the impact of an oil spill from Montara, and to see their hard work and the possibility of tertiary education for their children literally wash away, has been devastating."

"If the company thought that this issue would go away because the farmers are Indonesians, or because they didn't understand their legal rights, they were sorely mistaken."

According to Maurice Blackburn more than 300,000 litres of oil and gas spewed forth each day into the Timor Sea, about 690km from Darwin, from the time the rig exploded on August 21, 2009 until it was finally plugged on November 3.

It was equivalent to "pouring 10 Olympic swimming pools of toxic sludge into the ocean over the months the spill continued", it states.

Montara's owners, PTTEP Australasia, have always denied oil reached Indonesia.

In July last year The Australian Lawyers Alliance released a report describing how thousands of fishermen and seaweed farmers were worse off, with some suffering from respiratory trouble and skin ailments.

Lawyer Greg Phelps, who is described as a "driving force" behind the class action, said that for "too long, PTTEP Australasia and the Australian Government have turned a collective deaf ear to the calls for redress".

"The oil company has relied on the poverty of the victims, hoping the problem might go away. It is time for the polluter to now face its responsibilities," he said.

The case is being backed by Harbour Litigation Funding Limited.