CB BureauA deepwater well in a Krishna Godavari basin block operated by state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has been leaking gas for two months and there are now fears of environment damage due to the uncontrolled flow.
There are no immediate reports of any damage to the environment, marine life or coastline. But apprehensions of the leakage fallout are growing. An uncontrolled gush of gas could also throw up crude oil causing a spill. CauseBecause is awaiting replies to an email sent to ONGC communications department inquiring about the current status.
All efforts by ONGC to contain the flow from the G-1-9 well in Bay of Bengal have so far been futile. ‘This is a very old well, drilled some 8 or 10 years back. It wasn’t producing till now and we had plans to put it on production sometime next year along with other gas finds in the area,’ a company official said.
‘We have no idea how much gas (mostly methane) might have spilled but I suppose it must be at least one lakh cubic meters per day,’ the official said.
The company has sought the assistance of Coast Guard and Navy as well as neighbouring operators like Reliance Industries-BP combine and Cairn India to control the gas leak.
ONGC is developing G-1 field along with the neighbouring GS-15. Both the fields are marginal or small finds. G-1-9 well was part of this development through which ONGC had planned to produce 2.7 million standard cubic meters of gas and 9,400 barrels of associated oil daily.
ONGC had in the integrated development of G-1 and GS-15 targeted to produce 0.982 million tonnes of oil and 5.92 billion cubic meters of gas by 2020-21. The project at the time of conception in 2003 was to cost Rs 429.82 crore but the cost was subsequently revised to Rs 1,262.93 crore in 2004 and then to Rs 2218.01 crore in 2010.
Of the two, G1 is a deepwater field and is located 20 km away from the shore. GS15 is a shallow water field.