At least four people, including three Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and an official of the Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC), were killed in a fire on Tuesday at ONGC’s processing plant in Uran, Navi Mumbai.
There was no disruption at the oil processing unit, but gas was diverted to the company’s Hazira plant in Gujarat’s Surat to avoid further damage, impacting natural gas supply to industrial, commercial, and auto customers in Mumbai.
“The fire broke out in stormwater drainage in Uran plant early morning. We are extremely sad to have lost four precious lives—three CISF jawans and a senior ONGC officer—in the unfortunate fire incident in Uran plant today in spite of valiant efforts made to contain the blaze in less than two hours. ONGC expresses its heartfelt condolence to the bereaved families," the company tweeted. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, it said.
Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL), the distributor of natural gas to Mumbai and its suburbs, said gas supply was disrupted and advised its industrial and commercial customers to temporarily switch to an alternative fuel.
Supply to compressed natural gas stations was also hit, but was restored during the day.
The Uran plant processes oil and gas from Mumbai High fields, ONGC’s biggest producing western offshore fields. MGL buys gas from these fields to supply to its customers in Mumbai and its suburbs.
“The gas supply to MGL’s city gate station at Wadala has been partially restored and gas supply at various CNG stations in Mumbai and to industrial and commercial customers across MGL’s network is being progressively normalized," MGL said.
However, supplies to the domestic sector, including piped natural gas (PNG), was not impacted.
MGL supplies PNG to more than 1.2 million households, and CNG to around 700,000 vehicles across Mumbai.
The accident could impact MGL’s CNG sales, which account for 70% of the company’s total gas sales, according to analysts.
Later in the day, ONGC tweeted that it is supplying 2 million metric standard cu. m per day (mmscmd) of gas to MGL against the average daily requirement of 1.8-1.9mmscm.
“As such there’s no short supply. ONGC has taken all steps to keep the full quantity of gas supply to MGL uninterrupted so that the common people of Mumbai are not affected," the company tweeted.
