Baghjan blaze doused completely, confirms OIL

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GUWAHATI:

The Baghjan well in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district has been successfully “killed” after over five months since it caught fire, Oil India Limited (OIL) confirmed on Sunday evening.

“Baghjan blowout well (has been) successfully killed. The well has been killed with (a) brine solution and is under control now. They have doused the fire completely. There is no pressure in the well now, and the same will be observed for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas migration and pressure build-up,” OIL posted on its official Twitter handle.

“Further operation to abandon the well is in progress,” it informed.

Senior officials from OIL visited the site and had detailed discussions with the experts from Alert Disaster Control and personnel engaged in the operations.

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The team of experts had begun spadework earlier this month before actually proceeding to “to kill the blowout well” within the next two days.

The arrangements by OIL got underway after the snubbing unit, brought from Canada, finally reached the site on November 4.

The snubbing unit, comprising equipment weighing 59,000 kg, was flown to Kolkata by an Antonov aircraft, the largest civilian transport aircraft in the world.

The equipment was brought to the site by road.

Well ‘killing’ involves injecting artificial mud into the well at very high pressure to fill up the well and stop the gas from coming out.

(Edited by Andre Kongri)