NEW DELHI, May 29 - Faced with all round pressure, including from the Government of Assam, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan here on Friday took stock of the prevailing situation at the Baghjan Oilfield in Assam.
The minister also directed the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to help OIL in containing the blowout. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is learnt to have called up the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister seeking his urgent attention on the issue.
According to official sources here, Pradhan has held a detailed discussion with the chairman-cum-managing directors (CMDs) of Oil India Limited (OIL) and ONGC today.
Expressing his concern over the incident, Pradhan advised OIL to take all necessary steps to ensure the health and safety of the local population. He instructed ONGCL to provide all possible support to OIL in this moment of crisis.
In the meantime, the Government of Assam is also keeping a keen watch over the developments and providing all possible help to OIL.
Today the safety zone has been extended to 1.5 km from the well site and another relief camp is being set up to evacuate the people with the help of Tinsukia district administration. OIL, with the help of district administration, has ensured that all necessary food and logistic support is made available to the people staying in these relief camps.
Currently, an OIL team along with crisis management team from ONGCL and an expert team from ONGCL, Vadodara are working to mitigate the situation.
Sources said that OIL wants to reassure the local people of the area that their wellbeing, health and safety are the top priority for the company. OIL is also closely monitoring the environment and doing the best to minimise the impact.
OIL management is hopeful that the well will be brought under control at the earliest.
At around 10.30 am on May 27 the producing well of Baghjan 5 under Baghjan Oilfield of Oil India Limited in Tinsukia district suddenly became very active while operations were on.
As a consequence the ongoing operations had to be immediately suspended and the well started releasing natural gas in an uncontrolled manner. A crisis management team from ONGCL, Nazira has been mobilized to assist OIL�s efforts to control the well at the earliest.
The blowout happened while work over operations was going on to produce gas from a new sand (oil & gas bearing) reservoir at a depth of 3,729 metres. Earlier the well was producing around 1 lakh Standard Cubic Meter per day (SCMD) of gas from a depth of 3870 metres.May 29.
