BG Group PLC BG.

DJ India Official: Panna-Mukta Oilfield Repairs To End By Oct First Week

 
   By Eric Yep 
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--Oil and gas production at the Panna-Mukta fields off western India is likely to resume in the second week of October, more than two months after it was suspended due to a damaged undersea pipeline, a government official said Monday.

"According to some discussions we've had with the operator, the repairs will finish by the first week of October and production should begin after one week (of the repairs)," the official at the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, who declined to be named, told Dow Jones Newswires.

U.K.-based BG Group PLC (BG.LN) owns a 30% working interest in Panna-Mukta, while Reliance Industries Ltd. (500325.BY) and state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (500312.BY) own stakes of 30% and 40%, respectively.

Before the leak, the Panna-Mukta fields were producing 35,000 barrels of oil and 205 million metric standard cubic feet of gas a day.

The official added that the federal government's ninth round of oil and gas auctions--New Exploration and Licensing Policy IX--will be launched in Mumbai on Oct. 18.

-By Eric Yep, Dow Jones Newswires; 91-22-6145-6110; eric.yep@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 27, 2010 05:55 ET (09:55 GMT)

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