Oil India Limited (OIL) has begun the process of setting up a snubbing unit to “go for the kill” at the blowout well in eastern Assam’s Baghjan.
OIL officials said 60 tonnes of equipment flown in from Canada’s Calgary by an Antonov An-24 reached the blowout well site late on Wednesday. The equipment was shipped by road from Kolkata airport, where the flight had touched down a fortnight ago.
The equipment largely comprises a snubbing truck mounted with a snubbing unit for killing the blowout well before abandoning it. Killing entails injecting artificial mud into the well at very high pressure to fill up the well and stop the gas from coming out.
“The process to kill the blowout well has begun, but it will take four to five days for the snubbing unit to be ready to start the operation,” spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said from OIL’s headquarters Duliajan in Dibrugarh district. Baghjan is in the adjoining Tinsukia district.
“The snubbing operation has nothing to do with the fire that was diverted from the well head to a controlled flare pit nearby. It is for killing the well, which the experts hope to complete by November 13 or 14 for us to be over with the entire abandonment process by the first week of December,” he said.
Assam Baghjan well fire tamed 110 days after blowout
Well No 5 in OIL’s Baghjan Oilfield near the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park had a blowout – uncontrolled escape of natural gas at great speed – on May 27. The well is one of more than 20 in the oilfield yielding natural gas and crude oil for the exploration major.
The affected well caught fire on June 9 to complicate the capping operation entrusted with specialists from Singapore, Canada and the U.S., besides those of OIL’s own. The fire was on August 27 diverted to a flare pit.
“We have been producing part of the gas since the diversion, but the flaring is being done as the production centre cannot manage the entire volume of gas emanating from the well,” an OIL official said, adding that “no chance would be taken” to make the blowout well “produce again in the future”.
The length of the well from the surface to the ‘payzone’ – the gas reserve beneath – is about 3.5 km.
NGT observation
A committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) formed to examine the Baghjan disaster said OIL did not have the mandatory environment clearance for operating in the area. The panel is headed by former Gauhati High Court judge Brojendra Prasad Katakey.
In its progress report submitted on November 3, the committee said OIL did not have the consent to establish and operate under the “Water Act, Air Act and/or the Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016”, when the blowout and the fire happened at Baghjan.
The committee had in its preliminary report found a “mismatch between planning and execution” on the part of OIL, leading to the well blowout that caused “extensive damage” to the environment, flora, fauna and humans. It observed that OIL had operated Well No 5 without mandatory consent during nine financial years, including 2019-2020.
The panel, expected to submit a final report by December 15, also recommended compensation of ₹25 lakh to 173 families and ₹20 lakh to 439 families identified by the Tinsukia district administration as having been affected by the blowout and fire.
