The Hindu Business Line : ONGC to restore 70% of Bombay High output in 20 days

OIL and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will restore 70 per cent of its total production of the Bombay High North (BHN) by September 1. It is looking at setting up a floating platform for oil production at the site, said Mr Subir Raha, its Chairman and Managing Director, here on Wednesday.

The production was hampered due to the July 27 fire on the BHN platform. Mr Raha was speaking at the commissioning of Dhruv, a new advance light helicopter, to be used by ONGC for search and rescue operation on high seas.

ONGC will take new initiatives and measures in the coming years to face all contingences in the Bombay High region, he said.

"The recent accident at BHN and the deluge in Mumbai made us aware of the need to upgrade our infrastructure at Juhu airbase and create back-up helicopter landing facilities at Uran and Nhava," he said.

During the rains on July 26, except for the four helicopters located offshore, all helicopters were submerged in water at the Juhu helipad. Rescue operations during the fire a day later was badly hit due to lack of night landing facilities at the Juhu airbase.

ONGC is planning to add Inmarsat satellite phones, sea band communication, and KU band communication network to the existing infrastructure with such crises in mind.

ONGC, along with Pawan Hans, ferries about 3.5 lakh passengers a year between Mumbai and Bombay High.

ONGC will now remodel its office structure at the Juhu airbase, wherein communication systems and all other important facilities would be located on the building's first floor, while the roof of the building would be used as a helipad.

As the airbase gets inundated in monsoon mainly due the difference in levels between the approach road and the airbase, ONGC has asked the Airport Authority of India to raise the level of the approach road.

"We have been operating from Bombay High for the last 30 years and we intend to continue to do so for the next 30 years. Therefore, we have to create additional capacities in terms of infrastructure and multi-layered communication network to face all disasters. We have the required funds for the projects and we intend to execute our plans on a war footing," Mr Raha said.

CBM gas after March

"We began with Coal Based Methane (CBM) exploration in 1997 and completed production testing in Parbatpur (Bihar) in three years. Our stabilised rate of production was more than double to that of similar structures in the US. We will commence commercial production of CBM gas after March 2006, during the financial year 2007. We were the first to get into CBM exploration and we will be the first to go for commercial production," Mr Raha told Business Line. He said there are a number of fields that the PSU was operating on and the plan was to combine exploration and production of gas from these fields on a rolling basis.