State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on Wednesday said the agitation by its workers over Monday's helicopter accident had not affected crude oil production and operations were normal.
"All activities are going on. Operations are normal and we are producing crude oil without any disruption. In fact, oil production is on the rise today," ONGC executive director and Bombay High asset manager Kharak Singh told PTI from Mumbai.
Singh said the company's mainstay Bombay High fields, which produce 40 per cent of the country's total crude oil production of 660,000 barrels a day, are on Wednesday likely to produce 208,889 barrels as opposed to 203,525 barrels produced on Tuesday.
The entire Mumbai offshore region, which comprises Bombay High fields and Heera and Neelam fields, would produce 291,184 barrels on Wednesday as compared to 285,945 barrels of oil produced on Tuesday, he claimed.
Employees have called for a 'non-cooperation' agitation after a helicopter ferrying oil workers crashed in the Arabian Sea on Monday, killing 25 people.
Bombay high court on Tuesday barred employees of the state-run company from going on strike.
Petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi told PTI that a contingency plan involving running of operations on skeleton staff and asking British oil and gas major BG Group operated Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields to fill-in any supply disruptions by producing additional quantities, is in place.
| |||||||||||
Singh said operations at all the offshore installations -- oil producing wells, platforms, pipelines and gas processing stations -- were normal and there were was no disruptions.
"No untoward incident has happened. The Bombay high court had on Tuesday stayed the strike by workers and that is having its affect," he said.
Chaturvedi said a detailed contingency plan was in place and supplies to the refineries would not be affected.
Oil refineries on the west coast, which process crude from Bombay High, have stocks ranging from 10 to 12 days requirement and can sustain even if that supply source dries up.
"In the meanwhile, we can import. But I am sure such a situation will not arise and the strike would be averted," he said.
India is 70 per cent import dependant to meet its crude oil requirement and shelled out over $16 billion on oil imports last fiscal.