DIBRUGARH, June 16 � A leaking crude oil pipe inside the Makum Betjan forest triggered panic at Makum, Barekuri and Baghjan this morning. Inquisitive locals found that one crude oil pipeline of Oil India Limited had been punctured and crude oil was flowing out of it. This pipeline is one of the tubes that carry crude oil from the Barekuri oilwells to the Makum Oil Collecting Station.
Police sources said the puncture may have been caused by miscreants last night, as there are no dearth of crude oil thieves. The leak has been plugged late in the evening, but not before raising an alarm in half of Tinsukia district today. Local citizens of Barekuri and Makum have asked OIL to arrange for security patrols to avoid similar situations.
Former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta visited Baghjan today and later interacted with residents of the relief camp at the Baghjan Dighalturrung ME School. He was accompanied by local AGP leaders of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts. He was told by locals of the area that the Maguri Beel has become contaminated following the Baghjan blow out. This morning, a dead tortoise was recovered from the waterbody.
At the three relief camps at Guijan where approximately 1500 persons are being housed, the inmates have staged a demonstration today, demanding early rehabilitation. They have complained that the promised Rs 30,000 per family is yet to be received. These people cannot go back to their homes as the continuous tremors are showing no signs of fading away. A team from NEIST-CSIR (RRL Jorhat) would be studying the earthquake like ground movements. The relief camp residents of Guijan, under the banner of the Brihattar Natun Rongagora Gaon Oil Khotigrastar Khotipuran Dabi Samiti sent a memorandum to the Chief Minister today. The demands include ex gratia of Rs one lakh per family to tide over the immediate crisis, and another Rs 50 lakh per family to rebuild home and hearth damaged by the tremors. The other demands relate to environmental conservation issues.
At the Baghjan oilwell disaster site, work on building up infrastructure to finally take up the fire dousing and capping moves are underway. The Army engineers have begun work on the Bailey bridge near the towering inferno that is throwing up 200 feet tall columns of fire, accompanied by a loud hissing noise for the eighth consecutive day today. The well was earlier producing 88000 cubic metres of natural gas and condensates per day at 4500 PSI (pounds per square inch) pressure. A ballpark calculation reveals almost a million cubic metres of gas/condensates have already been lost to the flare. This loss is not mentioned in the OIL press notes.
Whereas, the OIL public relations department today gave out statistics of �production loss due to various agitations� today too. Till end of day figures for June 15, 2020, there has been a production loss of 458 metric tonnes of crude oil and 0.49 MMSCM (four lakh ninety thousand cubic metres) of natural gas. Till Monday evening, the cumulative production loss since May 27 due to bandhs and blockades have been quantified to 5844 metric tonnes of crude oil, 7.53 MMSCM (seventy five lakh fifty three thousand cubic metres) of natural gas.
The foreign experts, along with the Crisis Management Team�s Indian experts have inspected the progress of work today both at Baghjan and at the OIL Central Workshop at Duliajan.Two numbers of Bunk Houses and one high wattage electrical genset have been placed at site after completion of civil work for development of the area.
