New Delhi, Oct 13 (PTI) A major fire broke out at state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) oil platform off the Mumbai coast, leading to the shutdown of the facility, sources said.
The fire, which broke out at the NQG platform’s Process Gas Compressor C (PGC-C) after a gas cooler finger ruptured on Monday morning, was brought under control after an hour-long firefighting effort, with no injuries reported.
The fire led to the shutdown of the platform, which processed crude oil pumped from wells below the seabed. The facility processed over 40,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
As a standard operating procedure (SOP), the platform was shut down following the fire, a senior ONGC official said.
The platform was brought back online late in the
evening, and wells were being connected one after the other, the official said, adding that normalcy restoration will take a few hours.
Sources said personnel at the nearby NQO platform fought the fire for more than an hour before bringing it under control.
The NQG platform is part of ONGC’s offshore operations in the Mumbai High field in the Arabian Sea, off India’s western coast. It processes oil and natural gas for transportation to the mainland.
Mumbai High, located about 160 km off India’s west coast in the Arabian Sea, is the country’s largest offshore oil field and a key contributor to domestic crude production. The field is divided into two halves – Mumbai High North (MHN) and Mumbai High South (MHS). A company official confirmed the fire incident but said operations have not been impacted.
The NQO platform processed over 40,000 barrels of crude oil – the raw material for making fuels like petrol and diesel – per day. At current oil prices, the platform going out of service would mean a daily loss of Rs 4 crore in revenue for ONGC. PTI ANZ HVA
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