Offshore Platform
Cyclone Tauktae — P305 sinking and ONGC-project vessel disaster
17 May 2021
Mumbai High and Heera offshore fields, Arabian Sea, India (approximate marker)
Map
18.7000, 72.2000
What happened
Cyclone Tauktae's extreme winds and seas caused multiple vessels deployed on ONGC offshore projects to lose their moorings or towing arrangements. Accommodation barge P305 drifted, struck an offshore platform and sank with 261 people aboard; 186 were rescued and official shipping records list 75 deaths. Tug Varaprada capsized with 11 of 13 people killed. Support Station-3 drifted before all 202 aboard were brought to safety, Gal Constructor grounded with all 137 rescued, and drillship Sagar Bhushan was towed back after the storm. The Indian government later reported 86 deaths across the ONGC-project vessel incidents and convened a high-level inquiry into weather warnings, vessel decisions and emergency procedures. The record covers the connected offshore disaster rather than only the early P305 toll, which rose as search-and-recovery work continued.
When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.
- Evidence
- Documented
- Confidence
- High
- Infrastructure
- Offshore Platform
- Current temperature
- Loading…
- Latitude
- 18.7000°
- Longitude
- 72.2000°
Attribution
Responsibility has not been established in the cited reporting.
Sources
- Government constituted a High-Level Committee to enquire sinking of ONGC vesselsGovernment of India Press Information Bureau · Incident reporting
- Cyclone Tauktae Update — Indian Navy continuing search and rescue operationsGovernment of India Press Information Bureau · Official rescue update covering P305, Support Station-3 and Sagar Bhushan
- Barge P305 tragedy: four more bodies recovered; toll touches 70Hindustan Times · Documents the rising P305 death toll and location of its wreck during the recovery operation
- 86 dead during Tauktae: three ONGC executive directors suspended pending inquiryThe Indian Express · Corroborates the final combined toll and subsequent accountability proceedings