OIL installs BOP at Baghjan Well in 3rd attempt, killing ops to start tomorrow

Guwahati: After over 80 days of raging fire, public sector giant Oil India Limited (OIL) has finally succeeded in capping the well 5 in the Baghjan field in Upper Assam's Tinsukia by placing a Blowout Preventer (BoP) stack on the well head on Monday.

A blowout preventer (BOP) is a specialized valve or similar mechanical device, used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells to prevent blowouts, the uncontrolled release of crude oil or natural gas from a well. They are usually installed in stacks of other valves.

It needs mention here that two previous attempts to cap the well that on July 31 and August 10 had failed. OIL's first attempt to install the BoP failed after the 90-feet Athey Wagon toppled over. In its statement, the PSU informed that the BOP stack was hooked up with the Athey Wagon for placing on the wellhead. While the final capping operation was being attempted, the Athey Wagon toppled over at the last moment and the attempt did not succeed.

As per reports, the BoP stack has been successfully installed and the Athey Wagon has been removed. The process to kill the fire will begin after laying of pipes.

"Next, we have to inject kill fluid and that will be pumped into the Baghjan well to put an end to the fire. This is expected to take around 24-36 hours. This is a challenging operation.  A lot of challenge is there, but we are hoping to overcome it; the operation will begin early in the morning tomorrow", Tridiv Hazarika, the spokesperson of OIL, told The Sentinel Digital.

Well number 5 at Baghjan in Assam's Tinsukia district has been spewing gas uncontrollably since May 27 and a fire broke out at the site on June 9 killing two firefighters of the company. The oilfield is at a close proximity of Maguri-Motapung Beel and Dibru Saikhowa National Park -- ecologically sensitive areas.

The inferno is yet to be doused and three foreign experts who were involved in operations to extinguish the fire received burn injuries on June 22 while removing a spool from the well head.

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