Offshore staff

NEW DELHI, India – A team of ONGC engineers had to call in India’s Navy to help them plug a gas leak from an unmanned platform in the Mumbai High South complex, 180 km (112 mi) offshore western India in the Arabian Sea.

The leak was observed in one of the unmanned wellhead platforms S1-6. Platform crew immediately acted to shut down the platform and to bleed off the pressure in the pipelines, with fire-fighting vessels instantly deployed to provide water blanketing by continuously spraying water.

However, due to rough weather, with wind speeds of up to 35 knots, a swell of 3.5 m (11.5 ft) and strong sea surface currents, it was not safe for an ONGC response team to land on the platform by helicopter or to transfer them via a multi-support vessel.

ONGC approached the Indian Navy to intervene, the solution being to winch down the team with the help of Navy commandos.

A Sea King helicopter N555 from the Navy reached the nearby process platform and took ONGC’s four-strong technical team onto S1-6.

None had prior training or experience of winching down from a helicopter, but according to ONGC, the team showed extreme courage in adverse conditions, quickly learnt the technique and managed to land with Navy commandos on the unmanned platform to take the necessary actions.

07/26/2018