An explosion at a processing platform of the Panna-Mukta oil and gas field, off the coast of Mumbai, killed one person and stopped production of 40,000 barrels of crude and five million cubic metres of gas.

The supply shortfall will have to be met by imports if supply is not resumed in 3-4 days, industry officials said.

The Panna-Mukta, and the adjacent Tapti gas field, is operated by a consortium of Reliance Industries, British Gas and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Company officials said gas output would be resumed in a day, but oil pumping would take longer to resume.

State-run refiner IOC buys crude from Panna-Mukta, from where it gets four parcels of 35,000 tonnes a month.

"The fire on the (Panna) platform was local. For safety measures we have shut down oil and gas production temporarily (since June 3)," said a senior Reliance official. He added that gas production would resume tomorrow while resumption of oil production would take longer. Industry officials said getting back to full production levels could take 2-3 weeks.

All the oil from the two fields is sold to Indian Oil Corporation's refineries while the gas is sold to GAIL India, the country's largest transporter and marketer of gas.