In the first successful step towards dousing the blaze at Baghjan gas well in Assam, a blow out preventer (BOP) could be placed at the mouth of the well, Oil India Limited (OIL) said on Monday.
The BOP is a very heavy metal cover weighing several tonnes that is placed at the mouth of any gas or oil well to stop leakage of the fuel from under the ground. The company could place the BOP over the Baghjan 5 gas well head in its third attempt since a major blowout took place on May 27.
"The well capping operation was initiated this morning and the capping BOP stack was successfully placed over the well head. "The 16 studs have also been tightened," Oil India Ltd (OIL) said in a statement. The second attempt to shut the damaged gas well at Baghjan had failed on August 10 when an iron cable to lift the BOP snapped.
On July 31 too, an attempt to shut the well faced a setback when the wagon or hydraulic lift used to put a lid on the mouth gave in and "toppled over". The company will now start the "killing" of the well in order to block the uncontrollable gas flow and douse the raging fire.
"The preparations for killing operations are on.The BOP and the lines connected to it are being kept cool through continuous spraying of water," the statement said. A well kill is the operation of placing a column of heavy fluid into a well bore in order to prevent the flow of reservoir fluids without the need for pressure control equipment at the surface. The well number 5 at Baghjan in Tinsukia district has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 83 days since May 27 and it caught fire on June 9, killing two firefighters of the OIL at the site. On July 22, three experts from Singaporean firm — Alert Disaster Control — received burn injuries while they were removing a spool from the well head.
Meanwhile, the petroleum major said in the statement that it continues to face protests and blockades across few of its wells and field locations, leading to heavy production loss in the last few months.
"A total of 29,475 metric tonnes of crude oil and 69.71 million metric standard cubic metres of natural gas have been lost respectively as a result of protests, blockades, bandhs in and around Baghjan area since May 27, 2020 due to the blowout," it said.
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