The fire at a gas pipeline in Andhra Pradesh has once again raised questions on the safety standards being followed by oil and gas companies, and lack of statutory authority that the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) has.

The incident will also aid certain negative sentiments in States like Tamil Nadu, where GAIL is already facing opposition for laying pipelines in inhabited areas.

OISD, which is under the Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry, is meant to carry out safety audits of such installations, besides formulating and standardising procedures and guidelines for design, operation and maintenance. But it does not have statutory authority. The Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, said the Government will work toward giving statutory powers to OISD for better implementation of safety regulations.

A debate on safeguard measures had taken place in 2009 as well when a major fire at Indian Oil Corporation’s depot in Jaipur had killed over a dozen. The Government had then constituted a committee, which had gone into the details of safety standards being followed.

Standards followed A senior GAIL official, while stressing that the public sector entity ensures all safety standards during construction, operation and maintenance, as mandated by international/national codes, said the company has in place a well-equipped crisis management control room.

Elaborating on the standards being followed by GAIL, the official told Business Line that all its natural gas pipelines were designed according to international/national codes and as per the population density of the area. Besides, all the buried pipelines are laid at a minimum depth of 1-1.5 metres.

Pipelines are provided with an external three-layer polyethylene coating to protect from external corrosion, he said.

After completion of construction, pipelines are hydro-tested along with installation at a pressure of 1.4 times of design pressure to ensure the integrity of system.

The pipelines are divided into sections at regular distance, as per the codes, which can be operated to isolate the pipeline in case of emergency.

Physical inspection of above ground installation along the pipeline and identified vulnerable locations is being carried at regular internal well, the official said.

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