Indian Army has joined efforts to douse the blaze after Assam's civil administration sought its help in constructing a bridge over an adjoining water body. The gas continues to flow uncontrollably and fire rages on in Baghjan as Oil India Limited (OIL) continues to face public ire over the tragedy.
The production has been affected massively with the company losing 5,386 MT of crude oil and 7.04 MMSCM of natural gas output in the last 20 days due to bandhs and blockades.
"In view of the urgency of the operation to control the well, Bhaskar Pegu, Deputy Commissioner, Tinsukia requested the service of the Army (2nd Mountain Division) to construct a bridge of around 150 metre length over a water body adjacent to the blowout well," Oil India Ltd (OIL) said in a statement.
Accepting the request of the civil administration, the Army is carrying out mobilisation of material and personnel to the Baghjan site from Misamari and Tezu, it added.OIL said testing is complete for one of the two high-discharge water pumps of capacity 2,500 GPM to be used for well control operation.
Besides, the civil work of extension of the second water reservoir of 12,000 KL capacity, development of debris lay down, bunkhouse and kill pump area are in progress.
"Fabrication job of heat shields required for reducing heat hazards to working personnel at site is in progress at OIL's engineering workshop at Duliajan. Joint inspection of equipment mobilised from ONGC by Alert and ONGC team at OIL yard is in progress," the company said in a release.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal met senior scientists from IIT-Guwahati and CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) and requested them to start their job of conducting a study on the tremors at Baghjan following the blowout on an emergency basis.
"Five broadband Seismographs will be deployed by CSIR- NEIST, Jorhat at five recording sites for data to be recorded tentatively for 7-10 days. Locations have been identified and preliminary civil work for deployment of the instruments is in progress," OIL statement added.
The well number 5 at Baghjan in Tinsukia district of Assam has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 20 days and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL's firefighters at the site.
The blaze at the well is so massive that it can be seen from a distance of more than 30 kms with thick black smoke going up several metres high, endangering the local biodiversity in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park following the blowout on May 27.
Though there is no fire in the periphery of the well site at present, the company has declared an area up to 1.5 km of radius as "red zone" to avoid any untoward incident and damage to the general public.