ONGC resumes gas supply after pipeline fire

A pipeline carrying gas from Oil and Natural Gas Corp's Gandhar field in western India caught fire on Thursday, causing two power plants to close down, the company said.

The fire was extinguished at 10:00 am (0430 GMT), four hours after it began, an ONGC statement said.

"A fire broke out at one of the feeder pipelines of ONGC near the Central Processing Facility. ONGC restored the gas supply within one hour after the incident," it said.

ONGC's Gandhar field produces nearly 5,000 tonnes of crude oil and four million cubic metres of gas a day.

Officials in Gujarat said disruption of gas supply forced the closure of a 145-MW power plant near Baroda, 60 km (37 miles) south of Ahmedabad, and a 135-MW plant at Surat.

"But there was no major disruption in power supply because power is drawn from the grid," a Gujarat Electricity Board official told Reuters in Ahmedabad.

ONGC said senior officials including a director had gone to the site to supervise restoration of normal operations and to investigate the cause of the fire.

economictimes.com