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ONGC fire to be probed, affected wells to be 'killed'

A high-level probe into the incident of uncontrollable flow of gas and fire at a well of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited has been ordered which still continues to blaze in the Bombay High region even as steps are being taken by experts to 'kill' the affected wells.

Meanwhile, a special vessel from Singapore is arriving in Bombay to conduct a shallow seismic survey in and around the area of fire which will help in locating the 'hot spot' due to charging of sub- sea layers and will also identify the location of a relief well.

ONGC's group general manager H P Bhalla said that the high- level committee headed by former chairman and managing director of Oil India Limited, N N Gogai, will probe into the cause and recommend steps to avoid such incidents in future and identify persons responsible for lapses, if any.

The Sagar-Ratna rig situated adjacent to the affected well has been jacked down and towed about one km away from the B-121 platform on March 20. It will be brought to the shore for repairs of the elecrical systems and later redeployed at the site for operations.

However, the fire has not yet been controlled and the wells continued to blaze, which prompted ONC personnel and experts from Houston-based Cudd Pressure Control Inc to kill the wells. For this, the shallow seismic survey (sparker survey) will be carried out.

The committee headed by Gogai includes former ONGC group general manager (drilling) P L Gulati, former group general manager and director of the Institute of Reservior Studies of ONGC P V Ramana and former ONGC ex-general manager Y S Seroa.

ONGC's executive director D K Sharma said that though there is a shortfall of 1.6 million cubic meters of gas, the supply of gas to consumers will not be affected as it is being managed from other wells in the Bombay High region, situated in the Arabian Sea, around 140 km off the north-west region of Bombay.

He said that the ONGC is losing around Rs 2.5 million per day following the fire which started on March 12 in the well. ONGC's plant, rigs, pipelines and wells are insured and as such there is no no loss to the company.

There is also no environmental impact because of the fire. Since the wells are burning, there is no overflow of oil and there is no environmental impact on the sea.

''The skyline remains blue,'' he said. However, next week ONGC will carry out an environment-impact assessment to go into the details.

UNI

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