'Tauktae' surprises with ferocity, ONGC counts its losses

With the mega-cyclone on its way and warnings issued well enough, there could have been better preparedness from oil exploration major ONGC’s side, writes senior journalist Sanjib Kr Baruah.

New Delhi:An urgent 'mayday' radio message from Oil and Natural Gas Commission’s (ONGC) drilling ship ‘Sagar Bhushan’ at Bassein to the control room on Monday: "anchor wire ropes 1,4,5,6 & 7 runoff from the anchor drums. entire wire rope along with chain and anchors lost in the sea...steering gear unit broke off from the deck floor and not usable… port side gangway has fallen into the sea. vessel lost complete control and may-day declared at 1405 hrs."

Such 'mayday' radio messages would have come from many of ONGC’s about 25 platforms located off the Arabian Sea coast on Monday as cyclone 'Tauktae' wreaked havoc.

At the time of filing this report, ETV Bharat learnt that 'Sagar Bhushan' "had been secured to the tow line and will be towed to the nearby port with all onboard crew safe".

But others may have not been so lucky. On the same day, the SOS message from a large ONGC accommodation barge P-305 with 261 persons on board said: "Barge papa-305 hit unmanned platform hc (heera charley) heera field approximate 0930 hrs. Papa-305 damage the starboard side tank and flooding in the engine room. titling towards the starboard side. onboard person -261 pax. need assistance. immediate assistance."

On Tuesday, P-305 sank 35 nautical miles from Mumbai, in the Mumbai Offshore Development Area, even as three Indian Navy’s ships Beas, Betwa and Teg joined the INS Kochi and INS Kolkata to jointly undertake Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. A P-8I aircraft and naval helicopters continued to undertake an aerial search in the area.

Till the time of filing this report, 180 persons of the total 261 have been rescued even as darkness was setting in and the sea conditions still extremely rough with winds speeding at about 25-30 knots (approximately 35-55 kmph), posing a challenge to the ships and aircraft involved in SAR operations.

Most of those onboard P-305 were contractual workers employed by private companies that were working on projects outsourced by the ONGC.

With the weather warnings about cyclone ‘Tauktae’ being fairly frequent and pronounced over the last few days, it remains a puzzle as to why ONGC did not evacuate its personnel or the contractors who were working in its off-shore barges and platforms on the coast of the Arabian Sea, resulting in substantial losses in the cyclone.

"What has happened is unprecedented. We have heard for the first time about barges and oil rigs losing anchors in this manner and setting adrift. It is difficult to say at this stage but much better countermeasures to weather the storm could have been taken," a serving senior official of the ONGC told ETV Bharat on condition of anonymity.

ONGC operates several types of installations offshore. One is the oil well where continuous production activity takes place. Here the oil or gas well is fixed to the sea bed. It has a processing unit also which is attached to the well platform where oil or gas is processed before being sent ashore in pipes. This kind of installation is not impacted by weather conditions.

The second kind of installation is the oil rig which is jacked up and fixed to the sea bed or stays in tow and mobilization state. While the former is immune to errant weather conditions the latter is not.

Another type of installation caters to specific project activity when new platforms are to be added or modified, pipeline work or even to conduct surveys. This kind of work is not possible during the monsoon season when the sea swell is very high.