"We restarted oil and gas production on the evening of July 4," an official in the consortium said.
Production, however, is restricted to about half of normal output as repairs will take three weeks.
The field is producing 18,000 to 20,000 barrels per day of oil as against 40,000 bpd normal production. Gas output is restricted to 2.5 million standard cubic meters per day as opposed to 5.5 mmscmd in normal times.
Panna-Mukta oil and gas field was shut on June 3 morning for maintenance work to prepare for the forthcoming monsoon season. However, when the facility was being restarted that evening, an explosion occurred at
Panna process platform killing one.
"We were ready to start oil production around mid-June, but the sector regulator DGH advised us against doing so because it would have meant flaring of accompanying gas," the official said.
The damaged facility has been refabricated locally and will be inplace by July 27 after which normal output can resume.
"In the meantime, we have stepped up gas production from Tapti field. We are currently producing 13.5 mmscmd gas from Tapti," he said pointing that the total gas output during normal times from Panna-Mukta and Tapti field was 17.3 mmscmd.
"Tapti field production will be brought down once full output from Panna-Mukta field resumes," he said.
Reliance and BG hold 30 per cent stake each in the fields, while the remaining 40 per cent is with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
