CHENNAI/NAGAPATTINAM: The nine-km undersea pipeline of the Cauvery Basin Refinery belonging to Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL), which recently leaked hundreds of litres of crude oil, will be decommissioned. A formal announcement of the decision will be made on March 16 when the collector is scheduled to conduct a meeting with CPCL officials and members of the local fishing community.
A few days after the leak was finally arrested, the pipeline oozed out a small quantity of entrapped oil on Friday, leading to a fresh round of anxiety among the local fishers. The fishers, who only resumed fishing on March 8, have been demanding that the pipeline be removed considering the potential threat to marine ecology and the fishing activity. TNIE has reliably learnt that a decision was taken to decommission the pipeline with immediate effect, which means the pipeline will no longer be used for pumping crude oil.
‘Quantity of oil leaked into sea insignificant’
Asked how the ONGC crude oil extracted from Narimanam oil wells and stored in the Cauvery Basin Refinery tanks will be evacuated and taken to Manali refinery if the pipeline is decommissioned, a source said the combined storage capacity of the tanks was more than one million tonnes. “Other alternative arrangements will be made to transport that oil, when required. But, this pipeline will no longer be in use.”
On Friday, some oil diffusion was observed around the same area through which the pipeline passes around 3pm and the fisherfolk raised an alarm. Around the same time, some turbulent eruptive discharge near the pumping station sending liquid jets several feet high in the air, added to their fears. Revenue and police officials visited the area and sought an explanation from CPCL.
District Collector A Arun Thamburaj told TNIE that the situation is not alarming and is being managed. A CPCL source said: “For the past four days, we were carrying out controlled reverse flushing of residual oil in the pipeline into the tanks. During the process, some oozing out of entrapped oil was noticed from the portion that underwent repairs. We immediately stopped the flushing operation.
The quantity of oil leaked into the sea was insignificant.” CPCL sources rubbished some media reports showing the gushing of raw water as crude oil. “Venting of pumps with raw water was mistaken as crude oil by the local people and the same was reported by some media.” The CPCL pipeline leaked thrice before in the same area. The pipe leaked residual oil from the tank for the first time on March 2. It was fixed on March 4 but started leaking again.
The third leak was on March 5. The CPCL contained the spillage in bunds and began removing the spillage from the earlier leaks. The fisherfolk have been demanding the faulty line be removed as soon as possible. CPCL had earlier said it will remove the line after the industrial expansion in three years, which the fisherfolk said was too long. Fishers did not venture into the sea in protest from March 3 to March 7. The administration had asked the company to come up with a proposal by next week.