The well caught fire on June 9 adversely impacting the neighbouring villages

172-Day Baghjan Ordeal: A Visual Narrative of One of India’s Longest Gas Well Blowouts

Team TNE

Team TNE

Blowouts in gas and oil wells are not an uncommon phenomenon in Assam.  But the burst at Baghjan lasting for as many as 172 days was certainly unprecedented that compelled operating firm Oil India Limited to avail the services of foreign experts to douse the inferno.   From May 27 when the well began spewing natural gas until its end on November 15 when the inferno was finally doused, the crisis went through several phases triggering tragedies, expected episodes, controversies and emergency measures by OIL to come to grips with the situation. 

The crisis began on May 27 when Baghjan Well No 5 began to discharge natural gas uncontrollably ( credit – Oil India Limited)
The well caught fire on June 9 adversely impacting the neighbouring villages, ecosystem and resulting in the death of three persons including an engineer (credit- Oil India Limited)
Around 2500 people were evacuated from the 1.5 kilometres red zone of the Baghjan well who have also been offered compensation by OIL amounting to 369 million rupees (credit – Oil India Limited)
Extensive damage has been caused by the blowout to the wetlands and ecosystem which was pointed out by the panel appointed by National Green Tribunal ( credit – Bananda Hatibaruah)
Protest by local residents against OIL’s operation at Baghjan (credit – Jibon Dutta)
Debris removal by continuous spraying of water was a joint effort undertaken by OIL, ONGCL while most of the critical work was executed by Singapore based Alert Disaster Control (credit – Oil India Limited)
Diversion of gas flow to Early Production Set Up (EPS) was achieved on 13 September by OIL which was possibly the first time in Assam that gas had been diverted from a blowout well (credit – Oil India Limited)
Placement of water delivery line over Bailey Bridge to create a water blanket for workers close to the blowout well so that the experts from OIL, Alert Disaster Control and ONGCL could approach the well head and work (credit – Oil India Limited)
Well plinth set up on 14 July after removal of the debris at the site of the blowout by OIL with supervisory role by Alert Disaster Control (credit – Oil India Limited)
Well successfully capped on 17 August by Alert Disaster Control and OIL by installing blowout preventer on the well head which was a prelude to the killing of the well (credit – Oil India Limited)
Preparations began for placing the snubbing unit at the well on November 5 by a team of foreign experts from Canada and OIL (credit – Oil India Limited)
The well was finally killed and the fire completely doused with brine solution on 15 November (credit – Oil India Limited)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *