JOIN USMumbai High tragedy raises questions
Located off the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat, the Mumbai High offshore development area in the Arabian Sea is the flagship asset of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), and of the utmost strategic importance for India. With an output of 1.7 lakh barrels per day in 2020, it is India’s top oil-producing field.
When a week ago, Cyclone Tauktae wreaked havoc along the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat, it hit Mumbai High, too, resulting in the sinking of an accommodation barge Papaa-305 and tug Varaprada, resulting in 86 deaths.
The incident raised multiple questions – on safety at the rigs, on whether and who ignored the cyclone warnings, on accountability at the ONGC or higher up in the system.
When the incident took place on May 17, there were 342 installations in the Western Offshore region of the Arabian Sea, with over 7,500 people. Out of these installations, 243 were fixed and 99 floating. Of the 7,500 people, over 6,000 were in vessels.
ONGC officials say that based on the weather warning, the company activated its emergency response system and issued instructions to all installations to take action as per the standard operating procedure.
Of the total assets there, five were affected – Papaa-305, an accommodation barge with 261 persons on board; GAL Constructor barge with 176 persons on board; anchor handling vessel Varaprada with 13 persons on board; drill ship Sagar Bhushan with 101 persons on board; and construction barge Support Station with 202 persons on board.
A total of 714 persons were on board these vessels, of which 628 have been saved while 86 lost their lives.
As Tauktae hit the region, the wind speed was 100-120 kmph and waves rose over 8-10 feet. The anchors of Papaa-305 gave way and it crashed into an unmanned platform and capsized. The barge, along with its marine crew, was owned and operated by Durmast Enterprises Ltd., which was chartered by Afcons Infrastructure Ltd., which, along with its consortium partner Halani-Tes-Nauvata, has been working with ONGC to revamp its unmanned offshore platforms in the Arabian Sea.
So far, there has been no statement from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. However, the ministry has appointed a probe committee, comprising Amitabh Kumar, Director General of Shipping, SCL Das, Director General of Hydrocarbons, and Nazli Jafri Shayin, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence, to enquire into the incident.
The Yellow Gate police station in Mumbai, which has jurisdiction over a vast region of the Arabian Sea, has registered an FIR booking the Captain/Master of the barge for culpable homicide and negligence.
Meanwhile, there is a blame game going on.
Afcons Infrastructure Ltd said that the weather forecasts received on May 14 from the “service provider” predicted that sustained wind speed of maximum 40 knots (classified as a “Tropical Storm”) is likely to occur at its specific work location late on May 16 or early on May 17. It said that on May 14 itself, all vessels were advised to secure their respective workspaces and move to safe locations at the earliest. Accordingly, all vessels and barges, including Papaa-305, started moving out of their work locations on May 14/15.
While the other barges moved to Mumbai Port, Mumbai Outer Anchorage, or an anchorage close to Revdanda, “However, the Master of Papaa-305 chose to move 200 m away from the HT platform where it was working, and to remain at that location, deciding this as a safe location since the max predicted wind speed was only 40 knots and his location was 120 nautical miles away from the eye of the tropical storm,” a statement said.
Afcons chartered the vessel from Durmast. Charting is not the same as subcontracting. Durmast is the owner and the responsibility for marine operations rests with the vessel owner and his marine crew stationed on the vessel. “Afcons, as charterer, deploys its construction workmen and supervisors, who stay on the barge and carry out construction/revamp work on the platform,” it said.
A strategic affairs expert who keenly follows the aviation and oil sectors said: “The question here is not who owns (the vessel) …the main issue is, when there is an IMD report on May 11 on the impending cyclone and what its impact could be, why were people not evacuated? The first point that needs to be looked into is the ignoring of the Met report, and rest of the things come later…the SOP comes into operation from the (time of the) weather report itself.”
Experts have also pointed out that the post of the Directorate General of Shipping must be with “domain experts” and not just administrative persons.
Former Indian Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash (retd) has pointed out: “The fatal flaw lies in the assumption that critical posts requiring deep domain knowledge are tenable by any generalist bureaucrat needing a parking slot. Two examples: Director-General Shipping, D-G Civil Aviation.”