State-owned ONGC confirms no damage from oil spill near Uran

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Sunday said there was no damage to either farmers or fishermen due to last week's minor oil spill near Uran in Mumbai.

"In the morning hours of September 8, 2023, a minor quantity of oil leaked 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 company said in a statement.

Immediately, 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.

"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," it said.

ONGC said 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 4-5 paddy fields. The damage to paddy fields is also very limited. None of the fishermen have suffered any loss due to the small oil spill, as it is on the rocky part of the beach," the statement said.

"Prompt and proactive actions by ONGC for cleaning of oil from the beach and drain channels has led to an early restoration, which is now nearing completion."

Undersea pipelines bring crude oil from ONGC's 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, the last major one being in 2013.