Fire at OIL's Baghjan gas well in Assam doused after more than five months

The fire in the gas well of Oil India Limited (OIL) was finally doused on Sunday after a struggle for more than five months.

"The well has been killed with a brine solution and is under control now. The fire has been doused 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's spokesperson, Tridiv Hazarika said in a statement.

The natural gas well blew out on May 27 and it caught fire on June 9. Two firefighters and a young electrical engineer died during efforts to douse the fire. The fire in the well, however, could not be doused despite efforts by experts from the US, Canada and Singapore. The OIL finally brought a sophisticated snubbing unit from Canada earlier this month.

Several houses were burnt down, tea gardens, agricultural land damaged while the condensate flowing out of the well had an adverse impact on Maguri-Motapung Beel, an ecologically rich waterbody situated near the mishap site. A study by Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India found that over 60 to 70 hectares of land in and around the site to be destroyed due to the uncontrollable flow of condensate and fire.

Hazarika further said that an operation was underway to abandon the well. P Chandrasekhar, director (Exploration and Development ), P K Goswami, director( Operations) and D K Das, resident chief executive visited the Baghjan well site and held detailed discussions with the experts from Alert and OIL team, Hazarika said.