Army team surveys spot to construct bridge at Assam’s gas well site

PTI, Jun 17, 2020, 12:25 PM IST

Guwahati: A team from the Army carried out a survey for constructing a bailey bridge over a pond near the gas well site at Baghjan in Assam’s Tinsukia district, Oil India Ltd (OIL) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Baghjan well has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 20 days and it caught fire on June 9.

Due to continued public agitation alleging negligence on the PSU major following a blowout in the gas well, the company said it incurred a cumulative production loss of 5,844 MT crude oil and 7.53 million metric standard cubic meters (MMSCM) of natural gas since May 27.

Various organisations forced OIL to stop operations in three drilling locations and nine workover locations, the company had said earlier.

Protesters also put up road blockades at various places in Tinsukia, affecting movement of bowsers.

The blaze at OIL’s Baghjan gas well, which began on June 9 following a major blowout on May 27, is still raging.

After the civil administration sought the Army’s help in constructing a 150-metre-long bailey bridge over an adjoining water body for better access to the gas well site, a team from the Army’s 3 Corps carried out a survey for the project.

Meanwhile, the first load of equipment and materials mobilised from ONGC-Rajahmundry reached Duliajan, an industrial township where the field headquarters of OIL is located, for inspection by experts, while the second load is in transit, according to the company statement.

While the equipment will be used in dousing the fire, related work is also in progress at the site and OIL’s Engineering Workshop, it said.

A team of experts from a Singapore-based company is visiting the well site to assess the preparation for capping the well.

The blaze at well no. 5 at Baghjan is so massive that it can be seen from a distance of more than 30 kms while thick black smoke is going up several metres there, endangering the local biodiversity in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.

Doctors and paramedics of OIL have been screening the health condition of people in relief camps displaced from their homes due to the fire and providing them free medicines, the statement said.