Floods in Gujarat continued to disrupt half of India's natural gas production for the second day on Wednesday, threatening power generation in north and CNG supplies to automobiles in the national capital.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp's South Bassein and B-55 fields in Mumbai offshore remained shut for the second day in running, while the ONGC-Reliance-British Gas operated Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields did not produce any gas and were forced to cut oil production by 20,000 barrels per day.
Over 40 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from these fields was fed mainly for power and fertilizer plants and CNG operations in Delhi.
"The situation continues to remain grim. We don't see operations resuming in the next couple of days," a company official said. ONGC's Hazira gas processing complex, near water-marooned Surat, was flooded on August 7-8 night, forcing the company to resort to an emergency shutdown of the facility which received gas from its Bassein, B-55 and Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields in Mumbai offshore, company chairman and managing director R S Sharma told PTI in New Delhi.
The Hazira complex continues to remain under 4-5 feet water. Since Hazira could not receive gas, 32 mmscmd output from ONGC's Bassein and B-55 fields, and 10.5 mmscmd gas and 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil from PMT fields was suspended.
Non-availability of gas has partially affected GAIL's Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) pipeline. The company is rationing the 18 mmscmd gas available from LNG imported by Petronet. Power, fertilizer and transport sector is being given top priority, a company official said.
Sharma said gas supplies of 40,000 mmscmd from the Hazira Plant have been suspended. India's current gas availability stands at 91 mmscmd. ONGC's Bassein field only produces gas and so the oil production was not impacted. The company's oil output (and also gas) from its Mumbai High field goes to Uran in Maharashtra, which was operating normally. But in PMT, oil and gas are produced from the same wells and since gas was not accepted at Hazira, oil output too was suspended.
"Off the 65-70 wells producing oil in the field, only 17 were operating this morning," an official said, adding that the crude oil output was down from 38,000 barrels per day to 18,000 barrels per day.
The shutdown of gas field has also affected operations of HVJ trunk gas pipeline that supplies natural gas to industries in the north, including CNG supplies in the national capital. The Hazira-Vijaipur section of the pipeline is shut but the Vijaipur-Jagdishpur section continued ferrying 18 mmscmd from Petronet's Dahej terminal, the official said.
GAIL had been asked to ration supplies with transport sector (CNG in Delhi), power and fertilizer units getting top priority. Sharma said efforts are on at a war footing to restore operations at Hazira plant. ONGC and GAIL have set up separate control rooms to monitor the situation.
