A gas leak at ONGC’s Mumbai High oil and gas fields, off Mumbai Coast, happened on Saturday. A senior ONGC official said that there was no blowout, and there is no loss of life or property.

There has been no loss of production from Mumbai High fields, the official added.

“Evacuation of all non-essential staff was immediately initiated and drilling operations shut down, when the leak was found during a drilling activity in one of the wells,” the official said.

The company has capped the well and expects to plug the leak in next couple of hours. There were 82 personnel at the drilling site, of which 40 have been evacuated.

ONGC currently produces 3 lakh barrels a day of crude oil from Mumbai High. The Mumbai High crude is of superior quality. Mumbai High is one of the oldest producing fields in the country and the largest contributor to ONGC’s production output.

ONGC had recently said that it will invest over Rs 5,700 crore in redevelopment of its giant Mumbai High (North) oil and gas field off the west coast. The project will yield an incremental 6.997 million tonnes of crude oil and 5.253 billion cubic metres of gas by 2030.

Official statement from ONGC

Status Report on Gas Leakage in Mumbai Offshore

Drilling Rig Sagar Uday, was operating at NS platform in Mumbai High North on well number NSBX for side-tracking. The depth reached is around 1183 metres.

On 19th July 2014 early morning, gas flow was observed from the outermost casing annulus.

The Operation has been stopped for safety reasons. Forty eight persons have been evacuated to nearby installations.

Five vessels including two Multi Support Vessels (MSVs) are on the location for any immediate support.

Crisis Management Team (CMT) of ONGC is on site. The preparation of plugging the leak is in progress.

International expert from Boots & Coots has been mobilised .

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