GUWAHATI: An official from the Union petroleum ministry visited the Baghjan blowout and fire site and met the foreign experts from Alert Disaster Control and teams from Oil India Limited and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to understand the plan of capping the well.
Tarun Kapoor, secretary, Union petroleum and natural gas ministry, who reached Tinsukia on Tuesday, reviewed the progress and expressed satisfaction on the execution of the plan so far.
“Kapoor visited the Baghjan blowout site (well number 5) along with the chairman and managing director and functional directors of OIL to take stock of the work progress at the site on Tuesday. Later, he visited a relief camp at Baghjan,” a statement by OIL issued on Wednesday, said.
He also had a detailed discussion with the Tinsukia district administration and briefed them on the next course of action after reviewing all the details.
Meanwhile, due to a bandh in Tinsukia on Wednesday, movement of men and material to the site has been affected.
“Blockade at one drilling location and one workover location was lifted on Tuesday, while blockade still continues at one more drilling location and three workover locations,” the statement said.
Production loss of 103 MT of crude oil and 0.14 MMSCM of natural gas was reported on Tuesday with operations disrupted in 15 oil wells and one gas well.
OIL has incurred a cumulative production loss of 8394 MT crude oil and 10.7 MMSCM of natural gas since the blowout on May 27, 2020 owing to bandhs and blockades.
On the other hand, a broadband seismic network of five seismic stations has been installed surrounding the blowout location for monitoring the seismic activity, if any, as part of the seismological study initiated by North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat and National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad.
“An accelerograph has been installed at Baghjan EPS (early production system) to monitor the ground tremors, if any and also to estimate the effects in the nearby area due to tremors. Simultaneously, geophysical survey is being carried out to understand the subsurface activity,” the statement added.
