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ONGC gas field shutdown hits several firms
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 10 March 2004, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: Operations of Tata Chemicals, Indo Gulf Fertilizer, Chambal Fertilizers and Oswal Chemicals have been affected after natural gas supplies were cut for a fortnight following shutdown of India's largest gas field.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on March 7 shut down its BPA platform in the Bassein field to connect it with a new pipeline, leading to cut in natural gas supplies by 16.8 million standard cubic meters per day to 20.7 mmscmd, senior company officials said.
ONGC's Bassein offshore field produces 37.5 mmscmd, which is more than half of the country's gas output of 65 mmscmd.
The BPA complex will resume operations on March 21.
The shutdown has also forced a 10 per cent cut in gas supplies to power sector, but priority sectors like CNG supplies in Delhi, supplies to industries in Agra, Mathura refinery of Indian Oil Corp and Maruti Udyog Ltd have not been affected.
Besides all four private sector fertilizer plants along the HBJ pipeline - Chambal Fertilizers, Oswal Chemicals, Indo Gulf Fertilizer and Tata Chemicals - natural gas supplies to Reliance, Essar, Gujarat Gas and IPCL too have been stopped.
Iffco, however, has timed the shutdown of its Aonla-1 urea unit to match the gas shortage but it continues to run Aonla-II with reduced allocation of gas.