9 feet under: Scared labourers try to contain oil leak from pipeline in DHA

Officials have yet to discover the reason for the rupture.

KARACHI:

An oil pipeline leaked out on to Khayaban-e-Sehar in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on Thursday, near dozens of homes and a college.

The leak was reported in the morning by the company’s security officials who monitor the pipeline. The pungent smell of furnace oil, used in power plants, filled the air and the black liquid could be seen seeping along the road from different spots. However, the exact spot of the leak was nine feet underground and was located after ten hours of digging.

The 16-kilometre-long pipeline runs from National Refinery Limited (NRL) in Korangi to an oil terminal in Keamari, passing right through DHA. According to a resident of Khayaban-e-Sehar, this is not the first time it leaked. “The refinery people come, plug it up and leave,” he said. “No one here cares about our safety.”

The vigilance director of DHA, Col. (Retd) Muhammad Amjad, also said that the pipe had leaked before as well and from the same spot.

NRL declined to comment while DHA officials were busy trying to find out why the leak took place. Neither was willing to share the pipeline’s route.

Although DHA sent its security guards to the site and the NRL hired six labourers to try and dig up the road, there seemed to be little coordination between the two.

A man, who claimed he represented the NRL, played down the leak. “The pipelines leak all the time,” he said. “Water and gas pipelines leak everywhere.” He did not give his name.

However, the workers at the site said that it would take another three days to repair it. They could not be sure how much oil had accumulated in the six-inch pipeline before the supply was shut down from the refinery. All of it will need to be spilled out before the supply is restored.

The labourers could only go as deep as three feet without heavy machinery. Eventually they had to call in a crane to dig up concrete. “Personally I was really scared,” said one of them working at the site. “There are electricity and gas pipelines crossing under the road everywhere. What if one of them ruptures? Everyone will blame me.” He said that the oil-soaked soil will have to be disposed of properly.

Two more pipelines lie parallel to the one which broke down. One transports petroleum products to Keamari while the other carries imported crude oil to the NRL. According to a senior officer of the petroleum industry, half a dozen pipelines were laid down on two different routes in 1960s and 1970s. This was the time when NRL and Pakistan Refinery Limited were built in Korangi.

“DHA used to be barren land at that time,” he said when he visited the site in the morning. “We bought the right of way for the pipelines.” he said.

Over the years, DHA has widened the roads and removed the green belt but that data and records show that the pipelines passed under the green belts. The official said that constructing storm-water drains had damaged the pipelines. “The NRL must make the details about the pipeline’s maintenance public,” he said. “It is essential because oil corrodes metal quickly.”

However, an assistant director at Sindh’s Environmental Protection Agency, Muhammad Sohaib, believed that the movement of heavy traffic – trucks and dumpers, caused the pipe to rupture. “I think it’s illegal to allow traffic to flow over a pipeline,” he said. “It might be inconvenient to the people but moving pipelines is expensive.” To clean the spill up he advised mixing clay and clinker and then laying it over the oil. “The clay will absorb the oil. The sludge must then be disposed of properly.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2012.