GUWAHATI: A leak in the well head casing thread of the blowout well at Baghjan brought the gas diversion efforts of Monday morning to a naught, even as Oil India Limited authorities are optimistic of resumption of the diversion strategy soon.
Oil India Limited sources said the vertical release of gas from the well head had stopped on Monday morning after the gas was diverted to four areas, including two flare pits, and the Baghjan EPS (Early Production System).
“But the operation had to be stopped after a few hours when our engineers noticed a leak from the well-head casing thread. Gas has once again started blowing out from the well, and the fire, which was doused for about three to four hours, has once again started raging,” OIL spokesperson, Tridiv Hazarika told The Shillong Times on Tuesday.
As on Tuesday afternoon, expert teams from Alert Disaster Control and OIL are carrying out the welding job to plug the leak in the casing thread.
“Hopefully, the repair work will be completed by this evening so that we can resort to the same gas diversion strategy as early as possible,” he said.
It may be recalled that after multiple failures to cap the blowout well, a shift in strategy on Monday had worked, albeit for some hours, after as many as 104 days since the blowout (uncontrolled escape of gas at very high pressure) from the well started on May 27, 2020 and three months after the well caught fire on June 9, 2020.
“Some amount of gas was successfully diverted to the two flare pits and some amount to Baghjan EPS on Monday,” Hazarika said.