ONGC well to resume operations in 20 days

"The corporation is fully equipped to deal with such situations," he said, adding that the exploratory gas well that met with an accident will be exploited at a later date as in the case of Pasarlapudi well which was blown out in 1995. The Pasarlapudi well is currently producing about 1.3 lakh cubic metres of gas a day, he said.

According to him, the possibility of fire accidents in K-G Basin area is higher due to high pressure in these gas reserves. He said it will take 15-20 days to resume operations in the exploratory well.

Hazarika put the total loss at around Rs 15 crore. Hazarika was accompanied by ONGC director (technical) C N Pande and UN Bose, chief of drilling operations.

The blowout at the ONGC exploratory well "� PSAR drilled by E-1400-20 rig which caught fire yesterday "� was completely extinguished by Friday morning. Control measures for killing the well with heavy mud are being executed as a prelude to final capping, an ONGC press release said.

According to the press release, the well was drilled to ascertain the hydrocarbon potential of sands within Palakollu Shale section. It had reached the envisaged target depth of 3,250 metres when the incident occurred prior to final logging.

According to K Satyanarayana, chief of crisis management at KG Basin, "The burning out of the gas has helped in logging of the well to prevent further eruption".