Finally, after 104 days, Oil India Limited (OIL) on Monday doused the fire that broke out in Baghjan No 5 oil well by diverting the gas to the flare pit.
Now, OIL has decided to produce natural gas from the affected oil well.
Talking to Northeast Now on Monday over the phone, OIL spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said, “Till now, we are successful in our attempt by diverting the gas which is continuously coming out from the Baghjan no 5 oil well.”
“The gas has been diverted to the flare pit. We have decided to divert the gas to four areas till now and in two areas, we have successfully diverted it. After that, the gas will be diverted to the Early Production System (EPS) at Baghjan. We will observe the whole thing up to three to four hours,” the OIL official said.
Also read: Assam: OIL plans to carry out production from Baghjan oil well
“The local problems like sound pollution and other problems will be solved. Experts from Singapore and other teams from OIL are working in the area,” h added.
On May 27, a blowout occurred in Baghjan no 5 oil well when the workover was going on and the same oil well caught fire on June 9, which killed two firefighters of the OIL.
Due to the massive fire at least 12 houses were completely damaged.
The villagers had to leave houses to save their lives and took shelter in relief camps.
OIL recently failed in several ‘killing’ attempts in the oil well.
In their third attempt, OIL successfully installed the Blow Out Preventer (BOP) at Baghjan no 5 oil well but during the killing process, it failed to achieve success due to technical reasons.
More than 100 workers of OIL and an expert team from Singapore are still working at the site to monitor the whole process.
Recently, Assam heavy industries minister Chandra Mohan Patowary while speaking at the Assam Assembly session said it might require two more months to completely douse the Baghjan fire.