IOC pipeline ruptured near Jamnagar, oil spreads on agricultural land

Oil leaking out of IOC pipeline flows on agricultural fields in Mota Thavariya village of Jamnagar on Saturday. (Express Photo by Jagat Raval)

A spokesperson at the IOC’s western region pipelines headquarters in Rajkot said their technical team had located the leakage. “After the leakage was reported at 9:50 am, pumping was stopped in the pipeline. The leakage has been located and has been ascertained to be at five kilometres downstream from our pumping station in Jamnagar. Restoration work is in progress and is likely to be completed in next 24 hours,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesman said that the cause of the rupture had not yet been ascertained nor did they have immediate estimate of oil that had leaked due to the accident.

The 1,870 kilometre-long Salaya-Mathura pipeline (SMPL) off-takes crude oil from single point mooring systems at Salaya on the coast of Devbhoomi Dwarka district in Gujarat and pumps it to Koyali refinery in Vadodara, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh and Panipat in Haryana. The mooring systems offload oil from large oil tankers which carry it from countries in the Middle East and Latina America. A large quantitiy of crude oil that India imports lands at Salaya and is then pumped to the refineries through SMPL. There are two parellel pipelines in the SMPL and pumping of oil was stopped in both after the leakage was reported.

“The first priority is to arrest the leakage. Efforts are on to contain the spread of oil on agricultural land. Our technical team is fixing clams on the section of the pipeline which had been leaking,” the spokesperson further said. Makadia further said that seven tankers had been pressed into service to suck pool of oil formed on tracts of agricultural land. “They are sucking the oil so as to prevent it from spreading further and percolating underground. A multi-disciplinary team is on the site to assess and contain damage caused to the agricultural land,” he added.

The IOC spokesman said that the pipeline which developed breach was 12 feet underground at the spot of leakage and that it was commissioned in 1999. “No injury to human have been reported. The oil spread has not damaged any standing crop. In an effort to contain damage, IOC will also give special treatment to the agricultural land on which the oil has spread,” added the spokesperson.