Remembering an Accident: The Mumbai High North Platform
In trying to rescue an injured crew member, the Mumbai High North Platform encountered monsoon rains and high winds, subsequently leading to a disastrous gas leak.
On July 27, 2005, 22 people died in the Mumbai High North rig disaster in the Arabian Sea, around 160km west of Mumbai. India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) operated the Mumbai High North rig, one of the producing platforms on the Mumbai High field. The rig caught fire after a collision with the multipurpose support vessel Samudra Suraksha.
Strong ocean swells pushed the vessel towards the platform. When the vessel’s stern hit the rig, it ruptured one or more of the platform’s gas export risers. The resultant gas leakage ignited, burning the rig and damaging the vessel as well as the Noble Charlie Yester jack-up rig that drilled nearby.
The accident caused a large oil spill, negating production of 120,000 barrels of oil and 4.4 million cubic meters of gas per day. ONGC opened a new platform at Mumbai High North in October 2012.
Source: Offshore Technology, “The Mumbai High North Platform Disaster.”
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