Oil India Limited on Sunday said that the fire in the Baghjan Oil Field in Tinsukia district of Assam has been doused and the blowout killed. A fire had broken out at well number five of the plant on June 9, days after a major blowout took place on May 27.
Oil India said that a brine solution was used to douse the flames. It said that there is no pressure in the well now and the same will be observed for 24 hours to “check if there is any amount of gas migration and pressure buildup”. The natural gas company added that the operation to abandon the well was in progress.
Oil India had last week brought a snubbing unit from Canada to douse the fire, Deccan Herald reported. The company’s spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika had said that the snubbing unit from Calgary, Canada, reached 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,” he had said. More than 46,786 metric tonnes of crude oil have been lost due to the blowout, Hazarika had said.
Earlier well-killing attempts had failed. On August 17, Oil India had managed to cap the Baghjan gas well, over 80 days after the well had the blowout. The company had warned that the fire could take weeks to extinguish. At least two firefighters had died in the blaze. On July 22, another explosion at the well left three foreign experts injured.
Oil India Limited had approached experts from Singapore to help stop the gas leak. The oil blowout destroyed local tea gardens and water bodies in Assam, triggering protests by local residents. In June, the National Green Tribunal had directed Oil India Limited to pay an interim fine of Rs 25 crore for the damage caused to public health and wildlife due to the fire.
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