Baghjan oil well blowout completed two months on Monday but the fire is yet to be doused.
The Baghjan oil well blowout first occurred on May 27 while workover was going on at the high pressure oil well.
The blowout has incurred heavy losses to Oil India Limited(OIL).
Due to the blowout, the entire environment of Maguri-Motapung beel and its surrounding areas have been badly affected.
“Today Baghjan blowout completed two months but still flames continue to erupt from the oil well. The experts from Singpore-based Alert Disaster Control, OIL and ONGC are trying to douse the fire but it is taking time,” said villager of Baghjan.
“It is one of the high pressure oil wells in upper Assam. The blowout caused huge damage to the environment and the families living in the vicinity of the oil well,” the villager added.
The final preparation for capping operation is still going on.
Activities at the well site commenced since early morning on Monday.
New studs have been transferred to the site for replacing the deformed and damaged studs of the lowermost casing head housing flange.
“The first phase of sample collection prior to bio-remediation job is being carried out jointly by OIL and TERI team in and around Baghjan blowout well site,” said an OIL press statement.
“Recording of data at already installed analysers is in progress. Sample collection for monitoring of air quality and noise level for analysis is also being carried out,” it added.
Meanwhile, interpretation of the collected data will be carried out using specialized software at IIT Guwahati and the report will be submitted soon.
“Production still continues to be affected due to forceful closure of few Oil and Gas wells connected to Baghjan EPS. Drilling and workover operation still continue to be affected due to forceful closure of operation at few of the locations,” said an OIL official.
All six high discharge CMT water pumps are operational at the site for spraying water to the well head during the operation.
A total of 8 water pumps are available for filling both the water reservoirs periodically.