New Delhi, August 16
Rejecting the demand for a judicial inquiry into the July 27 ONGC fire at Bombay High, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar today announced in the Lok Sabha the setting up of an independent high-level inquiry committee to look into the circumstances leading to the accident.

Replying to a ‘calling attention’ motion moved by Mr Mohan Rawale (Shiv Sena), who wanted an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court Judge, the minister said the need of the hour was to immediately find out the reasons behind the accident which could be done only by an experts’ committee.

The committee will be assisted by, said Mr Aiyar, Flag Officer Defence to the Government of India (FODAG), DG Shipping and a representative of Insurance and DG and Director-General Hydrocarbon.

He said he was prepared for a judicial inquiry also if the House wanted it, but no other member, except Mr Rawale, expressed any view on the issue.

He said the ONGC board had decided to award full compensation to the families of the 11 persons reported missing — seven from the ONGC, two from Pawan Hans and two employees of contractors working for the ONGC. Eleven persons were confirmed dead in the accident — eight from the ONGC, two from the NC Yester and one from the Shipping Corporation of India.

The accident was already being probed into by an internal expert of the ONGC. The expert would submit report by October, the minister said.

He asserted there would not be “any significant” financial loss to the ONGC as the platform, destroyed in the accident, had been insured for $ 195 million and the multi-purpose support vessel (MSV), which got sunk, for $ 60 million.

Further, the ONGC would be able to restore 70 per cent of the lost production of 124,000 barrel a day by the first week of the next month. “We hope to substantially make up the rest of the production within a few weeks thereafter,” he added.