Assam oil well blowout: Protests by locals hamper control operations

GUWAHATI: Violent protests by locals around Oil India Limited’s well site at Baghajan, which after a blowout 14 days back and was still throwing out crude and gas back exploded on Tuesday resulting into massive fire and smoke, have hampered control operations. OIL said that it would take at least four weeks to complete all the operations and cap the well but efforts are on to reduce the time frame.
The fire is still raging and has engulfed nearby residential areas forcing over 1,600 families to flee their homes. Several houses and private properties have been already been damaged partially by fire. The Baghjan oil field blowout is threatening the environment as well. The blowout occurred at a producing well number 5, which is situated in the vicinity of Dibru Saikhowa National Park, bio-diversity hotspot and Maguri-Motapung Beel, which is a home to migratory birds.
There was no report of any casualty in the fire incident. Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan has apprised him that Indian Air Force has been kept on standby to deal with exigencies.
Soon after the explosion in the morning angry locals started damaging vehicles belonging to OIL and ONGC. Since the blowout on May 27, crude oil and natural gas has been continuously gushing out and OIL authorities after exhausting its owns means, have hired the services of Singapore-based firm M/s Alert Disaster Control to cap the oil well. The Tuesday incident occurred at around 1.30 pm when the three experts from ALERT were at the site.
“Post the incident, emergency meetings are underway with ALERT Team They have expressed that it is now a safe environment for working and are confident that the situation can be controlled and the well can be capped safely The situation demands arrangement of large quantities of water, installation of high discharge pumps and removal of debris All the operations as per ALERT will take about 4 weeks Efforts will be made to reduce this timeframe as much as possible,” OIL stated.
The oil major wrote to Assam chief secretary and Tinsukia district administration for “maintaining law and order so that the experts are allowed to enter the site and start the well control operations. All officials of OIL / ONGC are being evacuated from nearby areas. Once the situation is normal the experts from ALERT and the staff of OIL / ONGC will move to the site.”
Earlier in the day Sonowal called union defence minister Rajnath Singh seeking deployment of IAF for controlling the fire. Sonowal also telephoned Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to inform him about the explosion at the Baghjan oilfields and the resultant fire engulfing the area and urged him to take urgent steps for putting out the fire at the earliest.
Sonowal said that all necessary steps have been taken by the State Government to ensure safety of local people in Baghjan and instructions that Chief Secretary and DGP have been directed to take active steps to control the situation while keeping the armed and paramilitary forces, fire brigades, NDRF and SDRF engaged to ensure safety of the people in and around the affected area.
Sonowal directed Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary to immediately visit Baghjan and take stock of the situation.