Major Fire on Indian Offshore Oil Platform

27 July 2005

ONGC’s BHN platform afire. (NDTV)

Reuters. Fire ravaged a major Indian offshore oil platform today, killing at least three workers and shutting down the production of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Indian Coast Guard has rescued 271 ONGC employees while others are still stranded and/or missing. Search and rescue operations will continue through the night.

ONGC’s Offshore Platform BHN is 160 kilometers off the Mumbai coast, and had more than 300 people on board when an accident that caused the fire took place. A multi-purpose support vessel was also reported on fire. Personnel also abandoned chartered rig Noble Charlie Yester which was deployed in the vicinity. (ONGC)

The offshore Bombay (Mumbai) High field is by far India’s largest producing field, with current output of around 260,000 barrels per day, according to the EIA—now some 38% of India’s total output. The BHN platform, which is connected to up to 20 undersea wells, is the mail oil processing platform of the field, and is connected to two other platforms.

The ONGC chairman said that it would take months to restore production. There are no details yet as to the cause of the accident, although some reports suggest a rig collided with the platform.