NAGAPATTINAM/CHENNAI: Hundreds of litres of crude oil have leaked into the sea from a ruptured pipeline of the Cauvery Basin Refinery belonging to Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) in Nagapattinam, officials from the corporation said on Friday.
Although the leak has polluted the near shore waters and coast, CPCL officials termed it minor and said a joint operation is under way to repair the pipeline and remediate the affected area. The state government is likely to form an expert committee to quantify the leak and assess the extent of damage to the environment.
The incident caused unrest among the fisherfolk of Pattinacherry hamlet as fish and other organisms started dying. Two sea vessels and a Dornier aircraft of the Coast Guard were pressed into service to survey the oil spill. The pollution was noticed up to 50 metres into the sea and fishermen in the area did not venture into the sea on Friday.
As per the preliminary report submitted by the Nagapattinam District Environment Engineer, the fishermen of Nagore first complained of a “kerosene” smell from the sea around 6.50 pm on Thursday. CPCL officials inspected the site immediately and couldn’t find the source of oil leakage in the sea. Repair work started only on Friday afternoon. It was observed that only residual crude oil in the pipeline had leaked whose quantity could not be estimated.
Environment secretary Supriya Sahu said, “I am told the oil spill was not alarming, but an expert committee will be constituted, which will visit the site on Saturday and assess the quantum of leak.”
Local fishermen said the oil spill is spread over an area from Pattinancherry to the Samanthanpettai coast.
Fish and crabs are seen dead and washed on the shore. The fishermen had staged protests against CPCL and initially did not allow them to carry out repair works, forcing the sub-collector to hold peace talks.
An official spokesperson from CPCL told TNIE the Cauvery Basin Refinery was decommissioned in 2019. However, the crude from ONGC’s Narimanam Oil Wells are stored in the refinery’s tanks and are transported to Chennai once every 45 days for processing at its Manali refinery.
“Though crude oil pumping is not operational, a minor leak was noticed in the pipeline by Thursday evening which was swept into the sea due to high tide waves. The specific part of the leak has been spotted. Work on arresting the leak and removing crude from the sea water is underway and is expected to be completed by Saturday morning. There will not be any environmental impact. Officials from CPCL, with the support from IOCL, ONGC and district administration are working for it,” a CPCL statement read. A Arun Thamburaj, Nagapattinam collector said, “The spread is not going to be much and is restricted within 50 meters from the shore line.”
(With inputs from Antony Fernando @ Nagapattinam)
Villagers raised alert
Preliminary report of Nagapattinam DEE says the fishermen of Nagore complained of “kerosene” smell from the sea around 6.50 pm on Thursday
Repair started Friday
CPCL officials couldn’t locate the source of oil leakage in the sea. Repair work started on Friday afternoon. Only residual crude oil in the pipeline had leaked, the report said