The decision by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to cap the gas well at Bhatiapar in Sivasagar that suffered a blowout is a pragmatic and safer strategy to prevent a potential catastrophe, as efforts to check the uncontrolled release of high-pressure gas from the well did not succeed. Additional insights and expertise from a team of experts, who have arrived from the United States, are expected to help the Crisis Management Team of ONGC execute the capping operation smoothly. While crisis management must remain the primary focus, the incident is a grim reminder of the gap in safety oversight in oil and gas drilling in the state. Expeditious completion of the probe into the blowout already ordered will be crucial to identify the lapses, fix accountability on officials and individuals and further update the safety protocols. The Bhatiapar blowout brought back haunting echoes of the catastrophic Baghjan blowout, explosion and fire that lasted for more than five months in 2020 and caused extensive damage to biodiversity in the Dibru-Saikhow landscape, besides claiming three lives and leading to the displacement of about 3000 families amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. When lessons are not learnt from past incidents like Baghjan, the recurrence of more blowouts cannot be ruled out. Recommendations of the High Level Committee constituted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD), which probed the Baghjan blowout, for preventing such a crisis, were: preparation of a workover plan by a multidisciplinary team; safety audit of all rigs and installations on an annual basis; safety training for officers of all levels; development of a strong crisis management team; well control training for workover rig key personnel; review, revise and establish additional standard operating procedures (SOP) in all cross-sections of work, based on statutory requirements; Introduction of IT-enabled systems for drilling, workover and production operations; Invoking of provision of Disaster Management Act, 2005, and rules in case of blowout; Competency mapping for all key personnel and Preparation of detailed guidelines to be followed after blowout. According to OISD, the majority of the accidents that take place in the oil and gas industry are mainly due to disregard for SOP, equipment failure, poor maintenance, inspection and poor supervision. Probe into the ONGC well blowout in Sivasagar, going into all these aspects, will be critical to remove any gap in the system and in the safety oversight mechanism at all levels. Oil and gas exploration and drilling sites are located in ecologically fragile areas and often close to human settlements, due to which strict adherence to all safety protocols must be ensured at any cost. Increasing domestic production of oil and gas is crucial for the country’s energy security, reducing dependence on the volatile global oil market and cutting the import bill. Balancing this strategic requirement with conservation of environment and biodiversity requires deployment of precision technology and dynamically improving the safety regime. Huge expenditure incurred in crisis management following a blowout or other accidents in the oil and gas industry dents profitability of public sector oil majors like ONGC and OIL, delays schedules of exploration and production and slows down expansion of exploration and mining operations. Reducing the risks of blowout calls for strengthening monitoring and vigilance over procedural disciplines. Bringing more transparency in compliance, enabling multilevel monitoring and inspection in a rigorous manner, can augment the safety regime. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma having been required to write to Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri seeking the latter’s intervention and to direct the ONGC to intensify well control operation urgently is a pointer of a serious institutional gap in communication between ONGC and the state government over safety measures and execution. Oil companies regularly updating the state government about safety measures not just during crisis management after an accident has occurred but also during regular hydrocarbon exploration and mining operations is essential to prevent loss of time in going through the administrative process of the state government seeking intervention of the central government and pushing for urgent measures in the event of a crisis situation. Empowering the state government to issue specific direction for urgent measures for crisis management and making it mandatory for oil companies to provide all updates to the state government proactively will go a long way in strengthening the overall safety ecosystem in the oil and gas industry. Such a measure can also help the Assam State Disaster Management Authority to improve disaster preparedness and incorporate updated mitigation strategies adopted by oil companies in the state disaster management plan and disaster management plans of respective districts to boost confidence among the people about the overall preparedness of the state to respond to any disaster situation, including the oil and gas-related disasters. Any such reforms in the disaster reporting protocols will achieve the desired objectives only when the state government’s role is also prioritised in safety oversight and compliance mechanisms.