DIBRUGARH, Aug 17 - �Third time lucky,� said Tridiv Hazarika, deputy general manager, public relations and spokesman, Oil India Limited, (OIL), talking to The Assam Tribune early this evening. Today, the Blow Out Preventer (BOP) and stack has been successfully installed and bolted to the Baghjan No. 5 wellhead. Till the time of writing this piece this evening, the BOP stack is holding well, and should hold, adds Hazarika.
With this major development today, the next course of action tomorrow would be the �bulldozing� of the viscous cement mud through the inlet of the BOP. This well killing fluid, as it is also called, would be injected at a very high pressure through the inlet all the way 3.5 kilometres till the gas reservoir depths, where the subsurface perforations are located. The mud should be able to plug the perforations, and block the upward movement of reservoir natural gas and associated condensates.
The Crisis Management Team members expect the cement mud injection to last about eight to ten hours, informs a source. As the injection happens, gas would continue to flow out from the outlet valve of the BOP, which would be flared a little distance away from the well head via an escape piping. So effectively, the flame would be kept burning till the cement has reached the depths of the reservoir deep under the surface of the earth and solidified sufficiently to plug the gas flows.
Hazarika said the well capping operation was initiated this morning, leading to the BOP stack placed and bolted successfully over the Well Head. The 16 studs that holds the BOP in place have also been tightened with torque tools. He added that the BOP and the lines connected to it are being kept cool through continuous spraying of water through seven high pressure water pumps, each pumping water at 2500 gallons per minute. All eyes are now on the cement mud injection operations on Tuesday morning at Baghjan.
