KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian oil and natural gas exploration and production major ONGC has shifted rigs and personnel operating in the Bay of Bengal as a precautionary measure ahead of Cyclone Fani, which is expected to make landfall along the coastline of the eastern state of Odisha within the next 24 hours.

According to company sources, as many as four operational rigs in the Bay of Bengal have been shifted to safer waters and about 400 personnel have been evacuated ahead of the cyclone landfall, while a control room has been set up to monitor the changing path of the cyclone and rapidly increasing wind speed, which is forecast to hit 205 km/h.

Operations of Vishakhapatnam port in southern Andhra Pradesh, neighbouring Odisha and Paradip Port in Odisha have been stopped as precautionary measures. Incidentally, there are oil refineries located at Paradip, Vishakhapatnam and Chennai all falling in the current path of Cyclone Fani.

Over the past 24 hours, Cyclone Fani has been upgraded from “severe cyclonic storm” to “extremely severe cyclonic storm” by the Indian Meteorological Department and as of Thursday morning it was located 540 km off the coast of Odisha.

Representatives of oil companies held a meeting on Wednesday to take stock of the situation and reviewed preparedness for the protection of key installation and assets along the eastern coast, as well as that supplies of key petroleum and petroleum products would not be affected by the impact of Fani.

Officials forecast that as many as 19 districts across the tates of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal would be affected by Fani and this would lead to disruptions of mining operations across these districts and adjoining areas owing to rainfall.

The administration has activated 879 shelters with the capacity to provide shelter to more than one-million cyclone-affected people warning that if such a dislocation of the population was to be a reality, it would affect mining operations across the region.

At the same time, State-run transporter Indian Railways has cancelled or diverted train and freight movement across eastern region states, which was also expected to impact industrial operations in Cyclone Fani's path.