ONGC beefs up security at offshore installations

In the wake of recent terrorist attacks in some parts of the country, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's largest oil producer has heightened security at its installation particularly in the offshore.     

ONGC top management, Flag Officer Defence Advisory Group (FODAG) Coast Guard and the Intelligence Bureau yesterday met to devise an action plan to combat attacks on its offshore installations.     

"The deliberations centred towards taking a holistic view of security and a comprehensive action plan was drawn up with enhanced security at various embarkation points," a company release said.     

The meeting took note of vulnerable areas and decided on specific measures to counter any ill designs to disrupt the operational activities.     

The matter assumes high significance from the perspective of national security as ONGC has major oil producing assets along the coastline of Maharashtra and Gujarat in Western Offshore.

These have an investment of around $24 billion with production of 3,35,000 barrels of oil per day and gas of about 56 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd).     

"ONGC's endeavour and commitment is to ensure a secure and sufficient supply of energy availability to the billion population country. Security of the producing assets is a critical step towards this challenge," ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma, who headed the meeting, said.     

Sharma also stressed on the need to be alert in spite of the existing high level of vigilance and monitoring systems for the Offshore Development Area (ODA).     

The ONGC-introduced Vessel Automatic Tracking and Monitoring System has been well-accepted by FODAG, for its usefulness in tracking vessels that may enter an ODA area.