Anger as ONGC limits chopper sorties to staff
ONGC's decision to force workers from Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes and other service providers to take up to six-hour boat rides to access some western offshore platforms has provoked widespread anger.
On August 29 (2024), ONGC's Mumbai Region office decreed in a one-page directive entitled Use of Fast Crew Boats for Crew Changes that the new measure would take effect "tentatively" from September 15 (2024) when the Mumbai offshore monsoon season supposedly ends, making the Arabian Sea calmer for rig and boat movements. ONGC previously used helicopters for offshore crew changes but is cutting costs.
In the notice, CGM and chief of offshore logistics Mahesan Balakrishna Pillai writes that crew changes will happen through Fast Crew Boats (FCBs) from Mumbai Port's Domestic Cruise Terminal. He adds that "crew changes of all contractual manpower will be done only through" crew boats and that ONGC employee crew changes to and from rigs or platforms in the Neelam, Heera and Ratna fields (all closer to Mumbai port) will also be done through crew boats.
"All the offshore going personnel (ONGC employees and contract workers) shall carry valid passports for immigration clearance for going by (the) FCBs". The move will impact up to 4000 workers at ONGC's Mumbai offshore rigs and platforms, we hear.
Of these, up to 1000 are ONGC staff, with the remainder service provider employees deployed for inspections, maintenance, repair, housekeeping, and other roles. It takes around three hours by boat from Mumbai Port to platforms or rigs in Neelam, Heera and Ratna; about 4.5 hours to the Mumbai High, Bassein and Satellite fields; and at least six hours to platforms or rigs at Tapti.
By contrast, one-way travel from Mumbai by helicopter takes 45 minutes. ONGC personnel crew changes to and from platforms or rigs beyond Neelam, Heera, and Ratna will happen by helicopter.
But non-ONGC crew changes will happen only by boats. "Management is being petty by trying to save on helicopter sorties only for non-ONGC personnel at western offshore locations," says a source.
"Why this discrimination? Aren't non-ONGC personnel human beings?"