Gujarat floods: ONGC stops gas production

Production at Bassein and Panna/Mukta - India's largest gas fields - and Tapti in Mumbai offshore has been stopped, following flooding of Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) processing plant at Hazira in Gujarat.

"All gas production from the fields connected to Hazira has been suspended," R S Sharma, CMD of ONGC, said here.

ONGC's Hazira gas processing plant, which receives gas mainly from Bassein and Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields, had to be shut down last night due to flooding.

"The Hazira plant is in no position to take gas from the fields and so the wells had to be shut," Sharma said.

About 27-28 million standard cubic meters per day of gas output from Bassein field and about 13 mmscmd from PMT fields was shut down.

"It may take at least a couple of days to deflood the Hazira facility, before gas production is restarted," he said.

The shutdown of gas field has also affected operations of Hazira-Bijaipur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) trunk gas pipeline that supplies natural gas to industries in the north, including CNG supplies to New Delhi.

State-owned gas utility GAIL has been asked to ration gas supplies with transport sector (CNG in Delhi) getting the top priority followed by power units and fertiliser plants.

Sharma said efforts are on at a war footing to restore operations at Hazira plant. Petronet LNG CEO P Dasgupta said regassified LNG from the company's Dahej terminal was continued to be fed into the HBJ pipeline and that operation has not been affected.