OIL SPILL
CONTROL POLICY SOON : RAM NAIK
The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas,
Shri Ram Naik has called for putting in place a proper oil spill
management plan particularly in view of the participation of more
and more oil and gas companies both from private and public sector
in the Indian Hydrocarbon Sector. The competition being ushered
in both upstream and downstream sectors may at times result in
a ‘do-or-die’ approach overlooking some social dimensions such
as managing oil disasters in the sea including oil spills. This
could lead to serious environmental damage with a very high socio-economic
cost. Therefore, in the emerging scenario, there is an imperative
need to have a regulatory mechanism for preventing and minimising
incidents of oil spill. Shri Naik said this in his address read
out in absentia at a Workshop, organised by ONGC, on "Oil
Spill Management" in Goa today. Government on its part is committed
to bring in force an Oil Spill Control Policy as soon as possible.
A plan is being worked out to establish Oil Spill combat centres
in East Coast, West Coast and in the southern tip of the area
to effectively fight spills in case of a disaster.
Shri Naik further said that considering the huge
volume of crude oil and petroleum product transportation and the
vast extent of sea, it has become necessary to enforce regulations
for protection of environment and marine life. Shri Naik reminded
that more than 70,000 tankers pass through the accident-prone
narrow shipping lanes in the high seas of 7500 kms stretch of
our coastline and a single mishap may lead to a major disaster.
The Government has launched an aggressive exploration in off-shore
and also in deep waters which would result in extensive activities
on East and West Coasts of the country, he said. Simultaneously,
the refining capacity will also further increase from 116 Million
tonnes at present by another 25 per cent in the year 2006-07.
Referring to the potential of enormous loss and
need for channelising resources on large scale to combat oil spills
Shri Naik cited the oil spill in the North sea from the crude
oil super tanker "Sea Empress", on 15th February, 1996
which caused a release of 70,000 tonnes of North Sea light crude.
As crude oil is a complex mixture of chemicals, many of which
are harmful to wildlife in various ways, all types of shores were
affected by this spill from the Vessel Sea Empress, from wave-exposed
rocky cliffs to sheltered muddy creeks. Aircrafts and Specialized
Vessels were used to combat this oil spill which ultimately resulted
in enormous loss.
