‘Captain of barge P-305 chose not to move vessel away from cyclone path’.
Faced with high-speed wind and swelling sea, the ill-fated barge Pappa-305, with 261 crew on board, misplaced anchors and smashed into an unmanned platform earlier than sinking within the Arabian Sea after its captain ignored climate warnings and chose not to move the vessel away from the trail of extreme cyclonic storm Tauktae, a survivor recounted.
An individual, rescued from one of the three barges that adrifted after being smashed by the extreme cyclone, mentioned that whereas different barges began to move out of the trail of the cyclone once they acquired warning, the Master of P-305 hardly moved 200 metres from its location close to Heera oilfield within the Arabian Sea.
P-305 most likely had little or no remaining work on the ONGC platform and needed to stay anchored close to the worksite quite than transferring in the direction of shore and return after a couple of days, the particular person, who did not want to be named, mentioned.
But, the cyclone broke all its anchors and pushed it in the direction of the ONGC platform, he mentioned.
An unsigned observe from Afcons, the personal contract which had deployed the barge for the efficiency of a contract it had obtained from ONGC, mentioned all its vessels had been on May 14 suggested to safe their respective work areas and move to secure areas on the earliest.
The grasp of P-305 chose to move 200 metres away from the Heera platform the place it was working and stay on the location, the observe despatched to ONGC mentioned.
This, it mentioned, was based mostly on his evaluation that it was a secure location for the reason that most predicted wind velocity was solely 40 knots and his location was 120 nautical miles away from the attention of the tropical storm.
But, the climate situations deteriorated quickly from the night of May 16, reaching worse than predicted ranges a day later. This sudden deterioration of climate left no time in any respect for any additional motion to be taken by the grasp of the vessel, it mentioned.
Sources mentioned the grasp of the P-305 was one of the 26 lacking from the barge.
Of the 261 on board P-305, 186 had been rescued whereas our bodies of 49 have up to now been recovered.
Afcons had chartered the vessel from Durmast.
Durmast, the observe mentioned, is the proprietor and the accountability for marine operations rests with it.
Cyclone Tauktae made landfall on Monday night time on the Gujarat coast, which is dotted with oil and fuel installations. While the offshore has fields producing oil and fuel, the coast homes two huge refineries and a few of the busiest ports.
While 6,961 individuals on 337 offshore wells, platforms and different oil and fuel installations that dot the west coast stayed secure, 5 vessels encountered mechanical faults, placing in danger 714 personnel on board.
Three barges and an anchor dealing with boat deployed by Afcons for the mission it was doing for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and a drillship of a state-owned agency misplaced anchors and drifted away.
While 440 individuals on two barges and the drillship had been introduced to security, barge P-305 carrying 261 personnel sank.
Naval and Coast Guard vessels and plane scoured the waters off the west coast to search for the lacking.
The sources mentioned based mostly on the climate warning, ONGC, which operates the enormous Mumbai High oil and fuel subject and different fields within the area, activated its emergency response system and issued directions to all installations to take motion.
ONGC’s installations, which embody big platforms that home lots of of workers, wells, drillships and help vessels, took acceptable actions like staying at secure mode or transferring to a secure location, they mentioned.
Afcons’ building barge Support Station-3, whereas transferring to a secure location, encountered mechanical issues after its towing wire line snapped and it began drifting. It had 202 individuals onboard.
Its Gal Constructor barge, with 137 individuals on board, was at a secure location however its anchors gave away and it too began drifting.
ONGC’s drillship Sagar Bhushan was required to keep at its place as per the usual working process, however its anchors gave away and it developed a mechanical fault within the steering system. All its 101 individuals as additionally these aboard Afcons’ two barges had been rescued to security.
