When India’s weather office sent out cyclone warnings on May 13 and most vessels moved to safety, one barge working on Oil and Natural Gas Corp.’s field off the Mumbai coast stayed put.
That decision would prove fatal when Tauktae, a storm with the intensity of a category 3 hurricane, struck on the evening of May 16. It tore apart the Papaa 305’s anchors and slammed it into an offshore platform, taking down 261 people on board. Since May 17, 186 have been rescued, 70 bodies have been retrieved and five people remain missing. The storm left over 100 dead overall across several states.
India’s oil ministry has ordered an investigation led by a group of senior government officials into the accident, and wants a report within a month. State-run ONGC, the country’s biggest explorer, and its billionaire-owned offshore engineering contractor are under growing pressure to explain their roles in one of the world’s worst offshore oilfield disasters in recent memory.
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