Assam: OIL well fire contained but not doused

GUWAHATI: After 48 hours of the explosion leading to an inferno, Oil India Limited reported on Thursday that the extent of the fire has been contained to the well and spread of fire to nearby village has been cutoff.

“No flash fire is reported from the nearby areas. In order to arrest any untoward incidents of flash fire, fire tenders are kept ready at site,” OIL said in a statement.

The company said that various students’ organizations and association, including All Assam Students’ Union, All Moran Students’ Union, All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam have forced OIL to stop operation in three drilling locations and nine work-over locations spread over the areas of Baghjan (Dighaltarrnag), Barekuri, Dhakual, North Balijan, Bozaloni, Borhapjan, Jorajan and Naharkatiya.

An official statement said that OIL has lost 467MT of crude oil production from 59 producing wells on Wednesday due to the blockade by local people and various students’ organizations at Makum, Barekuri, Hapjan, Lankashi, Nagajan, Hebeda, and Dhakul. Gas production was also affected.

One of the oil major’s work-over well at Baghjan in Assam’s Tinsukia district reported a blowout on May 27 and since then, it has been continuously sending out jets of gas and gas condensate for 14 days until it exploded into an inferno on June 9 afternoon, which killed two fire service personnel of OIL.

OIL stated that preparation of roadmap for the well control operation by experts’ team from M/s Alert, Singapore along with ONGC crisis management team and ONGC’s former onshore director VP Mahawa is underway, which is expected to be ready by evening.

“One high discharge water pump will be placed at site on Thursday to begin the preliminary work. Suitable place for stacking of materials and equipment being mobilized from ONGC to be used for well control operation has been identified,” the company stated.