Oil and gas exploration works in the eastern coast have been temporarily halted in the wake of the tsunamis caused by the earthquake in Sumatra in Indonesia.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, which is drilling both in deep water and shallow water off the coast of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, is assessing the damages the huge waves could have caused to its installations.

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"We haven't heard of any major damage, but, as a precaution, operations have been halted to assess any loss of property or damage to equipment," ONGC Director (Exploration) Y B Sinha told PTI on Sunday.

Cairns Energy officials said there was no major damage to the company's Rava oil and gas fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast.

It was not immediately known if Reliance Industries' deepwater exploration in the Bay of Bengal was impacted. All that a Reliance spokesman said was that company officials and facilities were safe.

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The tsunamis have not affected the functioning of the refineries though. The operations at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's Chennai refinery and Vizag refinery were normal, HPCL Director (Refineries) D S Mathur told PTI from Mumbai.