Oil field fire incident still not reported

Islamabad: Negligence caused another fire incident in the Makori oil field operated by MOL Pakistan in September resulting in the loss of millions of USD. Almost six months have passed and the incident is still not reported to the concerned authorities. The silence of concerned authorities has left many queries.

The fire incident took place on September 21, 2022, at the Makori oil field. The field-operating Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Pakistan still has not reported the fire incident to the local police station and the concerned departments for proper investigations.

Sources revealed that a fire incident in the Makori oil field caused a loss of around 17 to 18 million USD whereas MOL refused to comment on the loss. Sources in the Makori oil field told this correspondent that the fire incident occurred because of the negligence of the company, as they least bothered to follow the security SOPs on the oil field. Luckily no one got injured and no casualty was reported in the fire incident.

Sources told that the CCTV on the oil field was not working properly at the time of the incident, that's why the company had not reported the incident to the local police station to register an FIR. “Petroleum ministry high officials are also backing the MOL to hide the cause of the incident,” sources added. It is to mention here that earlier on October 22, 2015, the fire incident in Makori East-4 took the life of three workers of a local contractor while filling a tanker. In the Makori oil field MOL is a partner of 8.421%, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has 27.7632%, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has 27.7632%, Government Holding Private Limited (GHPL) has 15% and Pakistan Oilfield Limited (POL) has 21.0526% working shares.

When this correspondent approached MOL Pakistan to get their official version it states “Our response teams were activated immediately after the fire incident at Makori Oil Field on September 21, 2022, and the fire was brought under control. There was no injury or loss of life in the incident.