Oil production at Panna-Mukta fields to resume

Crude oil production may resume tomorrow or day after tomorrow. The output will however be at a lower level since repair at a platform that witnessed explosion on June 3, may take some time, sources in RIL-BG-ONGC consortium said.     

Oil production may be of the order of 10,000-15,000 barrels a day against an output of 40,000 bpd before the explosion took place.     

Oil cannot be produced at full capacity as at those levels accompanying gas will have to be flared. Gas flaring is done at a place which is very close to the equipment that are being repaired and repairs cannot happen if the temperature goes up, they said.     

Gas production is likely to resume in 2-3 weeks.     

Reliance-BG-ONGC consortium had stopped producing 40,000 barrels of oil per day and 5.5 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from Panna-Mukta field since June 3 after an explosion at a platform killed a worker with BG.     

Panna-Mukta oil and gas field was shut on June 3 morning for maintenance work to prepare for the forthcoming monsoon season.

However, when the facility was being restarted at 2024 hrs that evening, an explosion occurred at Panna process platform killing one person.     

Besides shutting oil and gas production, the explosion damaged gas dehydrating facilities at the platform, sources said.