KOCHI: A fishing trawler rammed into the 'floating hoses' of the 'Single Point Mooring (SPM)' of BPCL, severely damaging two of them. The hoses were full of crude oil at the time of the accident. Luckily, the crude oil did not leak.
"Any leak would have caused marine pollution as each 'hose system' is about 330 metres long and has a diameter of 24 inches and contains about 80,000 litres of crude oil. Chances for a fire was high as crude vapours are highly inflammable and the hot engine of the fishing trawler would have acted as catalyst," according to a BPCL statement. A rope which is tied to the hoses got entangled in the propeller of the trawler and the boat got stuck. The rope had to be cut into pieces to pull the trawler away. The two damaged hoses together cost about Rs 60 lakh.
Coastal Police have arrested two persons - Biju and Cleetus, both crew of the trawler. There were 9 crew members in the boat at the time of the accident.
The SPM of BPCL is located in the sea about 19 kilometres from the shore. Tanker ships carrying crude oil reach the SPM and connect to the two floating hose strings. Crude oil is pumped by the tanker ships through the floating hoses to the SPM. From SPM, the crude oil reaches the shore tanks at Puthuvypin through under-sea hoses and pipeline.
For visibility at night, the SPM has a 'navigational light' which is visible from a distance of 5 nautical miles from the SPM.
In addition, the hoses are having 'winker lights' and reflective markings to identify them at night.
In 2011, Kerala Government had declared one nautical mile around SPM as a 'no-fishing zone' through a gazette notification and this was given wide publicity. The licensed trawlers are aware about the prohibition of fishing in the SPM area. But, still these trawlers ignore Cochin Port rules.