Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) today said it will restore in four weeks, 70% of the 110,000 barrels per day of output lost in the worst ever fire accident that destroyed a major oil platform in Mumbai offshore area."Our engineers have worked through the night to develop alternative scheme, which I have reviewed, and with that we expect to reach atleast 70% of production loss within next four week," Subir Raha, chairman and managing director of ONGC said after reaching Mumbai.The platform called Mumbai High North, which accounted for 30% of the 365,000 barrels per day oil production from Mumbai High Fields, ONGC's largest, was gutted in a major fire yesterday killing 10 people with 14 still reported missing.Raha said the 15 wells that poured oil into MHN automatically shut at the break of the fire, possibily caused due to rupture in a gas line on collision of an offshore supply vessel with the platform.Meanwhile, petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, making a suo moto statement in Lok Sabha, said the platform was insured for $195 million while the supply vessel, which was also gutted in the fire, was insured for $60 million.Building a new platform will cost atleast $300 million."We have a contingency plan in place. Wells connected to MHN will be looped to other platforms in the area. We hope to restore 70% of the MHN's production in two to four weeks time," said an ONGC director from Mumbai.
