ONGC supply back in a month

ONGC plans to restore 70% of it's production in 4 weeks.

The loss of production owing to a massive fire that destroyed the Oil Natural Gas Corporation's exploration platform at Mumbai offshore is estimated to be 1,10,000 barrels a day.

ONGC is now working on plans to restore at least 70 per cent of production in the next four weeks, its Chairman Subir Raha today said.

"To restore production to full capacity, it will take at least a year. However, to make up the loss to a great extent, ONGC will explore alternate routes," Raha said while addressing reporters at Victoria Docks, where survivors were brought from the mishap site today.

The corporation has also set up a high-profile panel comprising former ONGC chairmen, directors and oil industry experts, to probe the cause of the massive fire that destroyed the platform. But no time-frame has been set for the panel to submit its report.

The platform was insured for $195 million and the multipurpose support vessel, MSV Samudra Suraksha, which hit the platform, was insured for $60 million, Raha said.

The toll in the devastating fire has risen to 12 with 15 people still reported missing.

So far, 348 people had been rescued and efforts were on to rescue and locate the missing, said Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who visited the offshore site for a first-hand assessment of the situation and oversee relief and rescue operations.

Aiyar said the injured, who were just a few in number, were being treated at a naval hospital ship. Of those rescued, 129 are being brought to the Mumbai port with the navy and the coastguard continuing to look after them.

ONGC executives said that the vessels of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd had been deployed for rescue operations.

"SCI's Offshore Supply Vessel 01 and OSV 06 have been participating in the rescue operations," said the executives.

GE Shipping had deployed its OSVs Malavia 16 and Malavia 4 for rescue operations, company executives said.

"Six of the dead are ONGC employees and two are contract workers," an ONGC executive said in Mumbai. Six more employees have been located trapped under the debris of the oil platform and rescue workers are trying to get them out.

After the fire, SCI's oil tanker Gurbajan Salaria, which was loading oil from a single-buoy mooring near the fire-hit ONGC oil platform, was asked to move away for safety reasons, SCI executives said.

The fire broke out at around 4.30 pm on Wednesday at the platform, about 160 km from the Mumbai coast. There were 385 people on the platform at that time. Raha said the mishap led to a serious oil leakage, engulfing the platform and the MSV in a major inferno.

Those on the platform and on the MSV made efforts to control the fire but later abandoned the platform and the vessel when the situation went out of control, he said.

"The platform was burning till this morning. However, the oil spill has been brought under control with the help of ONGC and navy personnel," he said.