Ten dead, 367 rescued in India oil platform fire

BOMBAY, India -- Ten people were confirmed dead and several were still missing Thursday from a massive fire on an oil platform in India's biggest oil field. Ships and helicopters rescued more than 350 survivors.

The government said it would take a month to recover most of the lost oil production. The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp., which owns the platform, said it had started cleaning up an oil spill that stretched up to 10 nautical miles.

The fire on the platform 100 miles off the financial hub of Bombay was brought under control late Wednesday after a dramatic rescue and firefighting mission in rough waters.

The fire coincided with the worst monsoon rains in decades, which left more than 500 dead this week in Bombay and the surrounding state.

Vice Adm. Madanjeet Singh said 10 people had died and several were missing. Six divers were still trapped in a support vessel.

"We have managed to rescue 367 people," Singh said.

Navy ships and helicopters carried survivors and bodies of the dead oil workers to Bombay on Thursday. Some survivors were being treated for burns.

Reports indicated some people had left the platform on lifeboats and others were able to cross a bridge connected to another rig, federal Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told Parliament in New Delhi.

A supply vessel and an oil rig also were destroyed, Aiyar told reporters.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.

The destroyed oil platform produces about a sixth of India's total crude output of about 680,000 barrels a day.

That output meets only 30 percent of the country's oil needs. India imports the rest to feed its booming economy, one of the fastest growing in the world at about 7 percent annually.

The sprawling Bombay High offshore drilling region can produce as much as 14 million tons of oil per year. Nearly 650 oil and natural gas wells are operated there by Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Of these, nearly 80 are exclusive gas wells.

In 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."