Three important PSU employees died and several others were injured in the world‘s worst industrial disaster. (File)
Guwahati / Tinsukia:
The damaged gas well in Baghjan in Assam was successfully “killed” and the blaze was completely extinguished on Sunday after more than five months of explosion, Oil India said.
The worst industrial disaster in the Northeast claimed the lives of three employees of Major PSU and injured several others.
The process of controlling the well through the joint efforts of several teams, including foreign experts, also experienced a series of setbacks.
“The well was destroyed with brine solution and is now under control. The fire has been completely extinguished,” Oil India Ltd (OIL) spokesman Tridiv Hazarika said in a statement.
There is no pressure in the well currently and it will be under observation for the next 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas migration and pressure build-up, he added.
“A new well abandonment operation is underway,” Hazarika said, adding that experts from Singaporean company Alert Disaster Control were actively engaged in the final well control operation.
Company Director (Exploration and Development) P Chandrasekaran, Director (Operations) PK Goswami and Resident CEO DK Das visited the well site after the successful logging operation after 172 days of eruption and had detailed discussions with Alert experts.
Baghjan’s No. 5 Well in Tinsukia District had been spitting gas uncontrollably since May 27 and caught fire on June 9, killing two of the OIL firefighters at the site.
On September 9, a 25-year-old electrical engineer from OIL lost his life to a high voltage electric shock while working at the well site.
On July 22, three foreign experts from Alert Disaster Control, who were assisting OIL and CGSB experts to extinguish hell, were burned as they removed a coil from the wellhead.
