Thursday, July 28 2005 19:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Centre today (July 28, 2005) said the loss of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) oil platform, which accounts for 15 per cent of production of the State-run exploration giant, would not affect the energy security of the country and any shortfall would be bridged through imports.

"Yesterday I feared that loss of the BHN platform would affect the energy security of the country but ONGC has drawn up plans to restore 70 per cent of the production within four weeks," Aiyar told a news conference while announcing a three-member enquiry committee headed by former ONGC chairman S K Manglik to probe into the incident.

Out of the 384 personnel on the platform, 10 have died, 354 have been rescued, 13 are missing and the rescue vessels are trying to extricate the six divers who were in the decompression chamber of the Multipurpose Utility Vessel, which was burnt following a collision with the platform.

He said the loss of production would be only 1/12th of the four million tonnes production from the lost platform, as ONGC would find ways to augment production in few days.

Assuring industry that supply of hydrocarbons would not reduce, Aiyar said, "The country has ample financial resources and contacts to import oil and bridge the loss in domestic production."

Aiyar said the Prime Minister and he himself, while flying to Mumbai, flew very low over accident site and assessed the damage.

ONGC chief Subir Raha said studies would be carried out both on surface and sub-surface for specifications and designs for erecting a new platform.