Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism, Martin Ferguson said tonight that stopping the fire on the West Atlas and killing the leaking Montara well is a relief to all those involved and to the Australian community.
He cautioned that, "Although the well is now under control and the situation is stable, there is still a lot of work to be done to permanently plug the well and make the Montara wellhead facilities and the West Atlas drilling rig, safe.
"The fire has made these activities more complex and technically challenging, and introduced new hazards that need to be appropriately managed.
"I will now be directing my department and agencies - Geoscience Australia and the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority - to put all of their efforts into assessing the safety case, operations and environment plans for the remaining tasks so they can be completed safely and as soon as possible.
"That will be the focus of the next few days.
"I acknowledge the enormous efforts of all those involved in responding to this incident. They have been under huge pressure, but have stayed focussed and safe until the job was done, despite a number of setbacks. It has been dangerous, long and exhausting work, and I particularly thank the families of those involved for their patience and understanding.
"The Commission of Inquiry, its Commissioner and terms of reference will now be settled and announced before the end of this week."
Minister Ferguson said, "I welcome PTTEP's commitment to cooperate with the inquiry.
"It is vital that we understand what caused this incident, that we learn from it, and that we put in place any measures that would help prevent such an incident occurring in the future."