‘Thermal stress, corrosion ledto Nagaram pipeline blast’

ANU expert team submits report to Vice-Chancellor. The team visited the scene of blast thrice and interacted with people, officials of ONGC and GAIL, revenue and police personnel and came out with a comprehensive report recently.

A team of professors of Acharya Nagarjuna University have concluded that thermal stress and external and internal corrosion of the two decade old gas pipe line at Nagaram village in East Godavari district could have caused the devastating explosion that claimed 22 lives. The explosion on June 27 was the most recent in a series of explosions that rocked the Krishna-Godavari basin over the last two decades.

Vice-Chancellor K. Viyanna Rao constituted the team of professors led by Professor of Geology P. Sankara Pitchaiah and comprising Professor of Economics M. Koteswara Rao, Professor of Sociology Saraswati Raj Iyer, Professor of Pharmacy, D. Ravi Sankar Reddy and Professor of Civil Engineering, T.V.S. Vanalakshmi to submit a report on the incident.

The team visited the scene of blast thrice and interacted with people, officials of ONGC and GAIL, revenue and police personnel and came out with a comprehensive report recently. Apart from the opinions of ONGC, GAIL, the report has detailed analysis of production of gas in K.G basin, oil and gas prospects and technical aspects of gas pipe line in Nagaram village.

“The 8-inch gas pipe line with 70-80 kg psi (pressure per square inch) passing through Nagaram village maintained by GAIL was laid in 2001. The sub-soil natural gas pipe line should have the capacity to withstand cracks for 50 years, but with the pipeline developing cracks just within 15 years, the quality of pipe line comes into question, ‘’said Dr. K.V Rao.

The expert committee also exposed the lack of clarity between ONGC and GAIL. While ONGC deals with exploration of gas, GAIL transmits the gas to power stations.

“Despite an alarming recurrence of gas explosions, there was no visible concern by either ONGC or GAIL. It has also come to our notice that people have been cultivating farms, building houses on the gas pipeline laid six metres below the ground,’’ said Dr. Sankara Pitchaiah.

The committee recommended that the Centre should set up a statutory safety regulator for oil and gas sector and address safety concerns in transportation of gas with urgency. It also recommended for employing round-the-clock monitoring and put in place a comprehensive system of checks along the gas lines.