7 months after blowout, Baghjan gas well in Assam is finally abandoned

Seven months after it witnessed a blowout and 17 days after the blaze in it was doused, Oil India Limited’s (OIL) Well No-5 at Baghjan was finally abandoned on Thursday evening.

Following the uncontrolled release of gas and oil at the well on May 27, OIL had declared an emergency for its internal control purposes. On Thursday, the emergency was withdrawn after abandonment of the well.

“All the jobs pertaining to capping, killing and final abandonment of the well was successfully completed in the evening hours on December 3,” OIL said in a statement.

The company, which has been faced loss in production and backlash from local residents in its handling of the blowout, thanked all stakeholders for the support. It expressed gratitude to the three OIL employees who died during operations to control the blowout and subsequent fire.

The fire at the well was doused using by a team of experts from Canada on November 15 using a technique called snubbing.

The gas well in Tinsukia district had a blowout (uncontrolled release of oil or gas) during a workover operation. It caught fire on June 9 killing two firefighters. Another engineer died at the site in September due to electrocution.

Besides the loss of three lives, over a dozen houses located close to the well had been gutted in the fire and nearly 40 others damaged partially. Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and stay in temporary camps for months while efforts were on to control the well.

As the well is located close to the Dibru Saikhowa National Park and the Maguri Motapung Wetland there were also apprehensions of damage to ecology due to the blowout and fire.

According to OIL, several studies were conducted to access the damage caused and none of them had detected any major harm. Impact on the areas close to the well will be studied done after the well is completely brought under control.