August 09, 2006	Wednesday	Rajab 13, 1427

NEW DELHI, Aug 8: State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. halted production at India's two largest gas fields after monsoon rains flooded a processing plant in the western state of Gujarat, a report said on Tuesday.

The Hazira processing plant was shut down on Monday night, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

“All gas production from the fields connected to Hazira has been suspended,” Oil and Natural Gas chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma told PTI. “The Hazira plant is in no position to take gas from the fields and so the wells had to be shut.” The Hazira plant, which can process 32.5 million standard cubic meters of gas per day (1.14 billion cubic feet), receives gas supplies from the Bassein field off Mumbai and the Panna-Mukta-Tapti field off the Gujarat coast.

The two gas fields produce around 41 million standard cubic meters per day, PTI said.

A gas pipeline that supplies industries in the north, including to the national capital where public buses run exclusively on compressed natural gas, was also shut.

The state-owned Gas Authority of India, which operates the pipeline, has been asked to ration supplies with transport getting priority followed by power plants, the report said.—AFP