11 September,2023 03:01 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Representative image/iStock
On Monday, the ONGC in its official statement stated that there has been no damage to either farmers or fishermen due to the minor oil spill near Uran Beach recently.
On September 8, in the morning hours, a minor quantity of oil leaked was reported from one of the crude oil storage tanks at ONGC Uran Plant.
"Due to heavy rains, the leaked oil entered the stormwater drain channel. As the quantity of oil leakage from the plant area was minimal, the leaked oil got trapped between rocks on the beach, with only traces reaching the shoreline," the statement read.
The Oil Spill Response (OSR) team from ONGC was deployed to avoid the ingress of oil into the sea and cleaning of the shoreline commenced on war footing.
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"Due to heavy rains on the day of the incident and the beach being a rocky area, the cleaning took a lot of effort. Due to the ONGC team's timely and tireless efforts, the oil did not enter the sea, and no damage to marine life is anticipated," reads the statement.
"Further, the local villagers had taken an unauthorised water connection to their fields by breaching the stormwater drain channel wall from the Plant for irrigation purposes. Due to this breach, a small quantity of oil entered only 4- paddy fields. The damage to paddy fields is also very limited," the ONGC official stated.
"None of the fishermen have suffered any loss due to the small oil spill, as it on the rocky part of the beach. Prompt and proactive actions for cleaning oil from the beach and drain channels have led to an early restoration, which is now nearing completion," the statement added.
According to PTI report, the undersea pipelines bring crude oil from state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) fields in the Arabian Sea to Uran before it is transferred to refineries for processing into fuels like petrol and diesel. The pipeline had spills in the past, too. One of the last major spills was reported in 2013.
(with inputs from PTI)
