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ONGC puts out fire at Gujurat

gas processing plant

INDIA INDIA’S state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. supplies to customers by around 40%, Reuters
(ONGC) has put out a fire at its natural gas pro- citing an unnamed company source as saying.
cessing plant in Gujurat State after the facility GAIL supplies about 60mn cubic metres per day
was rocked by three explosions. of gas through its north-western pipeline grid,
The company said the fire had been extin- the newswire said, noting that the majority of
guished in the early hours of September 24 supply went to power and fertiliser companies.
and that no one had been injured by the blaze. The explosion comes a day after the Times of
ONGC said three blasts at two terminals had India reported a leak at one of ONGC’s under-
started the fire, but did not say what had trigged ground oil pipelines in Tamil Nadu State, which
the explosions. contaminated an acre (4,047 square metres) of
Surat’s top official said an investigation into farmland. The incidents highlight India’s ongo-
the accident would begin once cooling opera- ing struggling with accidents in the oil and gas
tions were completed. sector.
“The activity of depressurising the pres- State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) has only just
surised gas system [is] underway by ONGC managed to get a well fire at its Baghjan gas and
officials,” local news service ANI quoted Surat condensate field in Assam State under control, a
Collector Dhaval Patel as saying. “Other plants little more than three months after it first started.
in the vicinity are operating as usual. I am told The developer experienced a blowout at the
that the ONGC plant will also become partially Baghjan-5 well on May 27 after it tried to bring a
operational in two to three hours.” new reservoir on stream. This led to “uncontrol-
The newswire quoted an unnamed source as lable” flows of gas and condensate that eventually
saying that the Hazira plant processes gas from caught fire on June 9.
the Bassein gas field, which lies offshore Maha- OIL diverted the well on September 14 and
rashtra State. expects to begin well-killing operations within
The explosions and fire have forced state- three-four weeks, spokesperson Tridib Hazarika
run gas pipeline operator GAIL (India) to cut local news outlet ThePrint.™

Week 39 30•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9