Intensity miscalculation pushed ONGC barges into cyclone whirlwind: Sources

Inadequate advance notice and miscalculations of cyclone Tauktaes ferocity and its path may have contributed to a false belief that oilfield operations in the Arabian Sea need not be paused said top sources close to ONGC whose vessels with 700 onboard were struck by the stormA drillship of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC and three barges of private contractor Afcons working on the stateowned firms oilfield went adrift after their anchors gave away in the storm on Monday nightA massive daynight operation by the Indian Navy Coast Guards and ONGC vessels helped save those on the drillship and two barges but only 186 out of 261 onboard accommodation barge Pappa 305 could be rescued 37 persons are confirmed dead so far while the remaining 38 are still missingInstallations used to find and produce oil and gas from under seabed are built to work in difficult weather conditions In Mumbai offshore these installations stand in water depth of between 75 meters and 200 meters said a source with direct knowledge of the matterWorld over offshore oil and gas operations are neither shut nor personnel evacuated in every adverse weather eventIt is done only it is assessed that an event would be hard to handle he said Such assessment primarily depends on the weather input received by the operatorAlso Read Mumbai 37 dead 38 from barge still missing Navy continues searchIn the case of Tauktae the most severe storm to hit the west coast in more than two decades the predictions on speed atmospheric pressure and route all went wrong the source saidMore importantly it takes about a week or so to shut operations move vessels and shift people out as per the laid down protocol for a mishapfree operation he said In the case of Tauktae there wasnt enough time to do so Also the forecast of path and ferocity also were not accurate The time that vessels had to shift to survival mode and not go for evacuationAnother source said the captains of the ships are the final decisionmaking authority and have all powers to take any decision for the safety of the vessels and crewAll information received from the weather department and the Coast Guards were passed on to the operator as well as the captains of the four vessels he saidWe dont know yet why the captains choose to do what they did during the cyclone the source said adding an inquiry committee has already been set up to go into this issue in detailThe oil ministry on Wednesday constituted a highlevel committee to enquire into the sequence of events leading to the stranding of the vesselsThe committee comprising Amitabh Kumar Director General of Shipping SCL Das Director General of Hydrocarbons and Nazli Jafri Shayin Joint Secretary Ministry of Defence will submit its report within one monthIt has been asked to inquire into the sequence of events leading to the stranding and drifting of these vessels and subsequent eventslrmThe Terms of Reference of the panel also include looking into Whether the warnings issued by Meteorological Department and other statutory authorities were adequately considered and acted upon and if the Standard Operating Procedures for securing the vessels and dealing with disaster management were adequately followedThe cyclone sank P305 which had living quarters for employees working offshore while two other construction barges lost anchors and drifted awayBesides the barges one drilling rig of ONGC Sagar Bhushan with 101 people on board 37 ONGC employees and 64 contractual workers too drifted away from its locationSources said all the 137 persons onboard barge Gal Constructor which runs aground about 48 nautical miles north of Mumbais Colaba Point were rescuedAlso 201 persons onboard barge Support Station3 as well as ONGCs drillship Sagar Bhushan too have been brought to safetyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever