Experts say storing petrol in a leaked tank is a height of negligence as in summer it allows petrol to evaporate not only increasing depot´s loss but also exposing to a grave danger of catching fire.[break]
“During rainy season, water seeps into the tank and if water is not properly segregated during supplies, it could damage engine of vehicles, something that could cost consumers dearly," said Umesh Dahal, former deputy managing director of NOC. “On top of it, operating unsafe tank is a clear violation of all international depot operations and safety.”
The nasty store operations became public when a team entrusted to develop first investigation report of fuel content in the tank found it containing a whopping 82,000 liters of water. Worse, the team also found the tank containing some 50,000 liters less fuel than what was recorded when it was last measured, according to preliminary report.
"When we took stock of fuel in the tank on Monday, it had just 256,000 liters of petrol, whereas our records suggest it had more than 300,000 liters of petrol about a month ago," said a member of the team. The tank, build some 37 years ago, has the capacity to store 680,000 liters.
The probe has yet again dug out fresh incidence of oil theft from the controversially operated tank. "It has instantly inflicted a loss of around Rs 4.25 million to the corporation," the source disclosed to Republica.
NOC officials have attributed the situation to the management´s decision to continue operations of risky tank, as that gave space for staffers to blame leakage in the tank to manipulate the stock. The state-owned fuel monopolist had identified the problem with the tank, which mainly has to do with broken gasket of floating roof more than half a decade ago. Its engineering department then had even suggested the management to immediately stop its operations.
"We had recommended the management to dismantle the tank, as the technology with which it was built exists no more and it is difficult to repair the leakage," said an official at the NOC engineering department. However, the management turned deaf ear to the advice.
Interestingly, the NOC top brass, who admitted they were aware of the affair at the depot, were casual when Republica asked them about its faulty operations.
"Water and petrol are not soluble. Hence, presence of water in the petrol tank doesn´t affect nature and quality of fuel," said NOC Chief Digambhar Jha.
"Besides, our petrol storage capacity at Amlekhgunj has fallen to lowest ebb due to sharp rise in demand and that we could not think of closing it down.”
Amlekhgunj depot has the capacity to store mere 1920 KL of petrol, which barely suffices 5 days of national demand.
When asked about international norms and possible environmental hazard, NOC officials said they have recently decided to shut the tank down. "The investigation team will transfer the stock from the tank and we will seek technical hands from India to repair the leakage," NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel said.
Existing operational norms demand NOC to check and repair its tanks every five years. However, records show the last time NOC checked and repaired the tanks was some 25 years ago.
Still worse is; the situation of repair and maintenance of other fuel storage tanks is no better. "The management has completely stopped repair and maintenance works of its storage facility from a decade ago," said the source.
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