Leakage of ONGC pipeline near GAIL blast site

Close on the heels of a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline blast last week at Nagaram in Andhra Pradesh that claimed the lives of 20 persons, a leakage in another pipeline belonging to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which is near the blast site, was detected triggering panic among the local people.

ONGC, however, urged the people not to panic as it had replaced the leaked pipeline.

“A minor pipeline leakage was identified in a flow line on Sunday evening at 6.30 pm at Tatipaka GCS (gas collection station) complex. Fault diagnosis revealed that crude oil and gas of very low intensity trapped in the line was seeping out through an inactive non-flowing Tatipaka well number 2,” ONGC stated in a press release on Monday.

According to ONGC, the leakage was arrested by bleeding it out (bleeding out means washing out the remains in the closed pipeline). “To eradicate the root of the fault, ONGC’s engineering team and technicians worked tirelessly throughout the night and replaced the leaked pipeline,” it stated.