Probe ONGC for choosing private weatherman over IMD, panel to Govt

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited's decision to engage a private company to give weather forecasting services in 2010 was a poor decision, the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas has noted.

The report on the safety and security of oil installations of public sector oil companies has recommended that Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry should probe the reasons behind ONGC selecting Skymet for its weather forecasting services. 

The 31-member standing committee led by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri made special reference to the incident at Bombay High during Cyclone Tauktae in June last year that led to the death of 86 workers in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai and put hundreds of other workers on the rig at risk. According to official data, 628 workers were evacuated from various locations in the Arabian Sea.

The standing committee report recommended that ONGC should immediately restore its earlier practice of taking weather bulletins and advisories and also take location-specific forecasts for its installations from the India Meteorological Department.

Some of the other major recommendations made by the standing committee include:

* The Ministry/ONGC should take action against the third party inspection and certification agencies that certified the life-rafts of the ill-fated P-305 barge. To note, the barge served as an accommodation for 261 workers. The Committee further desire that regular servicing of life-saving appliances be maybe CCTV recorded and records of the same be duly maintained.  

* ONGC needs to overhaul its internal approval mechanism in ensuring that the certificates submitted are properly checked by them.

* The Petroleum and Natural Gas ministry should establish an institutional mechanism consisting of representatives of the Ministry of P&NG, ONGC and the contractors to ensure that all the victims and survivors shall get the compensation package as finalised.

* The Petroleum and Natural Gas ministry should constitute a Working Group comprising of industry professionals, legal experts, academics, etc. to look into the whole gamut of safety framework and suggest necessary changes for the petroleum sector in the country. 

* The Petroleum and Natural Gas ministry should constitute an inter-ministerial group and regularly monitor the progress of the implementation of the recommendations made by the HLC in a time-bound manner. Action taken in this regard may be apprised to the Committee in three months.

* The Petroleum and Natural Gas ministry and ONGC should coordinate with the concerned agencies on cyber security regularly and take all steps required to avert any cyberattacks in its installations.

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• Barge P-305
• Barge tragedy
• Bombay High
• Cyclone Tauktae
• ONGC
• Parliament
• Petroleum ministry
• Standing Committee
• oil PSU
• oil rig
• safety
• weather
• weather report