Oil spill off Nagapattinam coast | CPCL to remove pipelines before May 31

The decision was arrived at, during a peace meeting held on Thursday that involved fishers in the district, CPCL officials and government officials of various departments; fishers had been protesting, demanding the removal of the pipelines after an oil spill off the coast on March 2

The underwater oil pipelines owned by the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) in Pattinamcherry off the Nagapattinam coast will be permanently removed on or before May 31. A decision to this effect was reached at a peace meeting convened by the Nagapattinam district administration on Thursday.

The peace meeting was held in the presence of officials from the Fisheries, Revenue, Police, State Pollution Control Board, and CPCL at the office of Joint Director of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare in Nagapattinam on Thursday in which representatives of Nagapattinam taluk fishermen from seven coastal villages of Akkaraipettai, Keechankuppam, Melapattinamcherry, Keezhapattinamcherry, Saamandhanpettai, Nambiyar Nagar, and Kallar participated. The fishers pressed their charter of demands, including the removal of the pipeline from the vicinity.

CPCL will carry out reverse flushing to clean the oil pipelines, after giving prior intimation to the district administration, fisheries, and police department, and the taluk fishermen, a resolution taken at the meeting said.

The meeting comes in the aftermath of a leak observed in the nine-km long pipeline owned by the CPCL off the Nagapattinam coast on March 2. The pipeline used to carry crude from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s Narimanam oil wells to the CPCL’s now-defunct second refinery at Nagapattinam. CPCL workers plugged the leak on March 5.

Fishermen of Pattinamcherry and its adjoining villages had abstained from venturing to the sea for a few days and started their work only after the district administration promised to conduct a peace meeting to take a call on the pipelines.