Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday ordered a probe into the fire that engulfed a natural gas-producing well of the Oil India Limited (OIL) in Baghjan in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district 13 days after it had a blowout.
State’s Additional Chief Secretary Maninder Singh has been tasked with investigating the incident and submitting a report within 15 days from June 11.
The probe followed the death of two OIL firefighters — Tikheswar Gohain and Durlov Gogoi — who reportedly drowned in an adjoining pond after trying to escape the flames. Their bodies were recovered on June 10.
Four other firefighters escaped with minor injuries while at least 50 houses were reduced to ashes as the fire spread horizontally after the well burst into flames at 1.14 pm on June 9.
“The fire in the periphery is fully controlled. The fire is now restricted to the wellhead, which the firefighters are trying to control,” a spokesperson said from the headquarters of the OIL at Duliajan in the adjoining Dibrugarh district.
Controlling the wellhead fire is expected to take time. Stopping the blowout — uncontrolled escape of crude oil or gas from a well — would take four weeks after the fire is doused, the OIL had said earlier.
On June 10, the OIL suspended two of its officials without disclosing the reason. The suspension of chief engineer Bidyut Pawan Das and superintending engineer of drilling Debojit Das is believed to be in connection with the Baghjan incident.
The mishap at Baghjan, which is close to the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, has cast a cloud on the OIL’s plan to drill for hydrocarbon deposits under the 765 sq km wildlife preserve straddling Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
The OIL had on May 19 announced that it had received environmental clearance from the Environment Ministry for extension drilling and testing of hydrocarbons at seven locations under the park that is essentially a riverine island. OIL officials said they had obtained permission for the project in 2016
After the Baghjan incident, environment activists have expressed fear that the drilling would harm the ecologically fragile national park that houses wild horses besides being an important bird area.
OIL officials claimed the drilling with a sophisticated technology would enable exploration of hydrocarbon deposits horizontally at a depth of 3.5 km under the park. “This will be done from a point well beyond the boundary of the park, without disturbing its flora and fauna,” a senior OIL official said.
“No matter how deep you drill from what distance, how can we be sure the control mechanisms will not fail again,” asked Guwahati-based ecologist U. Borthakur.
