But no cause for concern as ONGC shuts down drilling operations and evacuates all non-essential staff
Mumbai
A high pressure, highly inflammable gas leak was reported on Saturday at a well that the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was drilling at its prime Mumbai High oil and gas fields, off Mumbai coast.
ONGC immediately activated safety procedures, shut down drilling operations and evacuated all non-essential staff.
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“There was no blowout. It was just a gas leak. All operations are safe. There is no loss of life or property,” a top source said. “There was no blowout, only some gas leaked unexpectedly during drilling.”
ONGC was drilling a side track well from a platform called NF on the Mumbai High North field.
“A gas pool was not expected at shallow depth of 1000 to 1100 meters. But during drilling operations, some gas came out and we have taken all precautionary measures,” he said.
Side track well is a secondary wellbore away from the original wellbore. This is done to bypass an unusable section of the original wellbore or explore a geologic feature nearby.
The source said the drilling operations were stopped and experts called in to control the gas flow.
“All non-essential people have been evacuated,” he said, adding there were 82 personnel at the drilling site, of which 40 have been evacuated.
Fire-fighting equipment has been moved to the location and Navy, Coast Guard as well as helicopter company Pawan Hans are assisting in rescue operations. Commander Rahul Sinha of the Indian Navy confirming the reports said, “There is a gas leakage on the ONGC platform and we will be sending some vessels for standby.”
The evacuation process was completed in minutes of the incident and no loss of life was reported. He further added, “Indian Navy is only helping for a standby operation in case anything happens during the night, there are no rescue operations being carried out.”
The oil rig is situated 162 kilometres off the coast of Mumbai. Coast Guard sources too said that everybody except the essential staff have been evacuated from the rig and there is no cause of concern as of now.
