Leak causes oil spill at Mundra Port

A leak was developed at Adani group's Mundra Port in Kutch district on Tuesday morning while unloading a vessel containing high speed diesel (HSD) of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL). The leak, however, was contained shortly with some spillage of fuel on the jetty.

Even as the state government officials confirmed the leakage, no confirmation came from the either of the companies.

"A leak had happened at the jetty of Mundra Port, where a ship was unloading fuel of HPCL. The leakage is not in the sea, its an on-ground leakage, caused due to a pipeline rupture. We have asked for a report on the same from Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB)," said S K Nanda, principal secretary, environment and forests, government of Gujarat.

He, however mentioned that the incident was not very huge as the pipeline rupture occurred for about five minutes and the leak was contained shortly.

Owned by Adani group, Mundra Port is the largest private port in India. The Adani officials rejected the claims of government of a leakage at the Mundra Port. "There is no leakage at all. We have informed the concerned state government authority that there was no incident of oil spillage in the last 24 hours at Mundra Port," informed a top company official from Mundra Port.

However, internally the Adani group had confirmed to the officials of HPCL about the "minor leak" at the Mundra Port, saying that "On-ground pipeline carrying HSD of HPCL, which connects its tank farm in Mundra to the Mundra Port, had developed a minor leak. The pipeline passes through tranches and the leaked diesel contained in the trench has already been cleared."

Currently, there are 13 ships berthed at Mundra Port, of which two are liquid tankers, while the rest are cargo ships.

The tankers which were unloading at the berth on Tuesday were, M/T Pratibha Tapi, unloading HSD of HPCL and M/T Glenda Megan, which was berthed to unload crude palm oil (CPO).