Coast Guard holds mock drill to control oil spill

Mangalore, March 28: The Coast Guard on Tuesday carried out an exercise to check the preparedness of various stakeholders in tackling a possible oil spill in the sea.

The exercise was conducted by involving the New Mangalore Port Trust, the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd., and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.

The exercise was conducted as per the District Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan devised by the Karnataka unit of the Indian Coast Guard. The Coast Guard deployed its specialised pollution response vessel “Samudra Prahari”, which had been sent from its Regional Headquarters, Western Region, in Mumbai. The NMPT made use of its two tugs “Suvarna” and “Subadra” for the exercise. According to Rajmani Sharma, Commander, Coast Guard, Karnataka, the Coast Guard would coordinate with all the stakeholders to quickly respond to the oil spill and prevent it from reaching the shore.

This was the first time that such an exercise was being carried out on the Karnataka Coast, Mr. Sharma said.

A team of presspersons were taken on the “Samudra Prahari” to view the exercise. The mock drill started with a Coast Guard surveillance boat noticing an oil spill around 10 nautical miles from the New Mangalore Port. The “Samudra Prahari” vessel and the NMPT tugs moved towards the location of the oil spill. The exercise went on for nearly three hours.

Commandant Jagat Bir Singh Virk, who heads the Pollution Control Response Team for the West Coast, said the strategy of tackling oil spill would be worked out after analysing various factors, including the type of oil, extent of the oil spill, and the direction of the wind. The 95-metre-long Samudra Prahari vessel, he said, provided different modes of controlling the oil spill.

One of the modes include spraying of oil spill dispersant (OSD) from an equipment fitted on either side of the vessel. The OSD would disintegrate oil on the water surface and facilitate natural oil dissipation, Mr. Virk said. As much as 50 tonnes of OSD could be stocked in the vessel.

This vessel was recently involved in preventing the oil spill from m.v. Rak carrier along the Mumbai Coast which saved 24 persons in August 2011, Mr. Virk said.

Rajender S. Sapal, Karnataka District Operation Officer of Coast Guards, said that such an exercise would be conducted on a regular basis along the Karnataka Coast, which was a busiest shipping lane on the Arabian Sea.