Assam’s Baghjan fire doused entirely.
The fire in the Baghjan oil field in Tinsukia district of Assam has been extinguished and the blowout killed completely, said Oil India Limited (OIL) officials on Sunday. The major blowout took place on May 27 as well as when the fire had broken out at well No.5 of the plant on June 9.
The company’s spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said that the snubbing unit from Calgary, Canada, arrived at Baghjan on November 4. “It is expected that after completion of all necessary pre-operation activities, the well killing operation by the snubbing unit will commence within the next couple of days” said Hazarika. The officials also stated that more than 46,786 metric tonnes of crude oil has been lost due to the blowout.
OIL said a brine solution was used to douse the flames and there is no pressure in the well now and it will be kept under observations for 24 hours.
The exploration company had earlier made many failed well-killing attempts, where on August 17 they managed to cap the Baghjan gas well after 80 days of the blowout and the company had warned that the fire could take weeks to douse.
OIL lost its two firefighters at the site and on September 9 a 25 year old electrical engineer lost his life due to high voltage electric shock while working at the well site. On July 22 a foreign expert team from Alter Disaster Control Asia (Pte) Limited, Singapore was assisting OIL and ONGC in putting off the inferno and received burn injuries while working on the well.
The National green Tribunal (NGT) in June had directed OIL to pay an interim fine of 25 crore rupees due to the damage the fire cost to the public health and wildlife.
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