By IANS,
Mumbai : Hydrocarbon major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has drawn up a comprehensive action plan to enhance security at its offshore installations in the Arabian Sea off the Mumbai and Gujarat coasts, a company statement said.
The plan was drawn up after a high-level meeting in the capital Tuesday to review security-related issues facing the installations. The meeting was chaired by the ONGC chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma.
The thrust of the plan is to thwart any oil-field related subversive activities in the backdrop of a spate of such activities recently in the country, the statement said.
The meeting assumes significance from the national security perspective in view of ONGC’s major oil producing and exploration assets in Western Offshore along the coastline of Maharashtra and Gujarat in the Arabian Sea.
The assets are worth around $24 billion with a daily production of 335,000 barrels of oil and 41 million cubic metres of gas.
Sharma emphasised that the “design of insurgency is to destabilize the economy of the country and as a major upstream company, it is ONGC’s endeavour and commitment to ensure a secure and sufficient supply of energy.”
He made it clear that there can be no compromise on the security and safety of the oil and gas processing facilities in the interest of India’s one billion population.
The deliberations centred on taking a holistic view of security and a comprehensive action plan was drawn up to enhance security at various embarkation points. It took note of vulnerable areas and listed out specific measures to counter any ill designs to disrupt ONGC’s operations.
Top officials of ONGC, the Coast Guard and the Intelligence Bureau attended the meeting, which also discussed threat perceptions and the preparedness to counter
them.