The death toll rose to 10 with several still missing yesterday from a massive fire on an oil platform in India's biggest oil field, with the government saying it would take a month to recover most of the lost production.
Ships and helicopters rescued more than 350 survivors.
The fire on the platform, 160km off the financial hub of Mumbai, was brought under control late Wednesday after a dramatic midsea rescue and firefighting mission in rough waters.
"Though the loss of the platform would immediately impact 110,000 barrels per day of crude production, it is expected that 70 percent of this production would be restored over the next four weeks," federal Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told the parliament in New Delhi.
A supply vessel and an oil rig in the region also were destroyed, Aiyar told reporters.
"We have managed to rescue 352 people," senior navy officer Vice Admiral Madanjeet Singh said.
There are "10 dead and several missing," Singh said. "Six people are trapped in a support vessel and efforts continue to rescue them."
In the parliament, Aiyar conveyed "the nation's grateful thanks to the navy and the coast guard who have mounted a remarkably rapid and extremely successful search and rescue operation."
Navy ships and helicopters carried the survivors and bodies of the dead oil workers to Mumbai yesterday.
Some survivors were being treated for burns.
Eight of the navy ships involved in extinguishing the fire also assisted in the rescue operations, said Commander Abhay Lambhate, a navy spokesman.
Reports indicated some people left the platform on lifeboats and others were able to cross a bridge connected to another rig, Aiyar said.
Lambhate said the cause of the fire had not been determined. Unconfirmed media reports said it started after a rig collided with the platform.
"Our first priority is to save lives and second, to control environmental pollution," Aiyar said.
The sprawling Mumbai High offshore drilling region can produce as much as 13 million tonnes of oil per year.
Nearly 650 oil and natural gas wells are operated there by the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
Of these, nearly 80 are exclusive gas wells.
The accident comes during the worst monsoon rains in the country's history, which left more than 200 dead in India's financial capital Mumbai and the surrounding state.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image