Baghjan fire
Image credit - Twitter @nayak_bj

The reports of ONGC taking over the charge of controlling the Baghjan fire as the Oil India Limited (OIL) fails to douse the fire have been denied by the OIL.

According to sources, Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan is dissatisfied with OIL for their failure to control the Baghjan fire, which has been blazing for the last three months.

Union minister Pradhan recently talked to the OIL chairman-cum-managing (CMD) Sushil Chandra Mishra through video conference regarding the Baghjan fire issue.

The minister reportedly said OIL has failed to control the Baghjan fire after a successive attempt.

“The Union minister said the officials of OIL have no future plan to handle the Baghjan crisis. You people are not efficient to control the Baghjan fire,” said sources.

It was reported that the Union minister handed over the charge of controlling the Baghjan fire to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) CMD Shashi Shankar. However, this has been denied by the OIL.

On Monday, OIL claimed that they successfully doused the Baghjan fire from its oil well No 5 by diverting the gas to the flare pit and Baghjan EPS but after some hours, an explosion took place due to the major leakage and the OIL had to stop their operation.

Sources claimed, “The whole operation had to be stopped as advised by the ONGC CMD through a video conference.”

“The entire exercise is just an eyewash as there is no concrete future plan even now regarding the blowout. Diversion can’t be a solution for a blowing out well. In fact nowhere in the world such unsafe practice is followed,” said sources.

On Thursday, ONGC CMD Shashi Shankar is arriving at Baghjan to take stock of the crisis.

Talking to Northeast Now, OIL spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said it was false and fabricated news.

“OIL and ONGC are working together in Baghjan to douse the fire. We clarify that this is a false news.”

He said repar works are going on and after the completion of the repair, the diversion of gas from the Baghjan no 5 oil well will start.

On Monday, OIL diverted the gas from Baghjan no 5 oil well to the flare pit but the success lasted only for a couple of hours after an explosion ripped apart the well head causing valve around the BOP due to intense pressure from the gas well.

Avik Chakraborty is Northeast Now Correspondent in Dibrugarh. He can be reached at: [email protected]