India's ONGC halts offshore work after reporting gas leak

 India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. said operations at a natural gas field off the country's coast were halted after it observed a gas release.
The company said operations at the Mumbai High North natural gas field were halted Saturday for safety reasons after gas was seen leaking from the area.
"A crisis management team of ONGC is on site," the company said in a Saturday statement. "The preparation of plugging the leak is in progress."
The company gave no estimate of the size of the release. Experts from spill response company Boots & Coots have been mobilized to the site.
ONGC said 48 people were evacuated from the platform following the release. There was no status report on crewmember injuries.
An official with the company told the Economic Times of India on condition of anonymity the severity of the leak "has been blown out of proportion."
Copyright 2014 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.