The Hindu Business Line : Deora reviews impact of floods in Gujarat

The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Murli Deora, today reviewed the impact of floods in Gujarat on the oil installations and supply of products, including the supply of natural gas.

The Minister expressed satisfaction over the fact that supplies of petroleum products have been maintained with minimum disruption and also on the steps taken to minimise the impact to the extent possible on gas supply along the Hajira-Vijaypur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) pipeline.

CNG supplies

Although the HVJ pipeline continues to be closed, the supplies to the priority sectors particularly for compressed natural gas (CNG) use in Delhi is being maintained from the stocks available and are likely to remain unaffected, the Minister was informed.

He also took stock of operations to restore normalcy and advised that the oil companies should gear up their emergency response mechanism so that they could respond to restoring operations at various installations at the first available opportunity. At the review meeting, it was noted that the oil refineries in Gujarat have been working normally even though flood situation continues to be grim in Hazira.

The Hazira plant of Indian Oil Corporation is still in four ft of water as of reports that came in last this afternoon. However, the situation is expected to improve by Friday. ONGC's gas processing complex in Hazira is closed since Monday midnight. Floodwater has started receding and the complex is expected to be cleared of floodwater by Friday, a statement by Petroleum Minister said. ONGC is mobilising its resources, manpower and expertise to restore the operations at the plant as soon as possible.

Revenue loss

As a result of the floods, a revenue loss of approximately Rs 20 crore per day is being caused due to the closure of ONGC's Hazira gas processing complex. As far as operations at Mehsana are concerned, a loss of about 700 tonnes of oil production has been caused to the ONGC because of electrical tripping and short circuit, the statement said.

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