Explosion at Baghjan Oil Well in Assam, 3 foreign experts injured

An accident at the natural gas blowout site in eastern Assams Tinsukia district on Wednesday injured three of the six foreign experts involved in the dousing of the well fire raging for around 43 days officials saidAccording to officials of Oil India Limited OIL three experts of Singaporebased firm ALERT Anthony Steven Reynolds Doug Dallas and Craig Neil Duncan suffered minor burn injuries while removing a spool from the well headAssam An explosion occurred near well no5 of Oil India in Baghjan Tinsukia 3 foreign experts at the site injured They have been rushed to hospital The incident occurred when operations to douse the fire at Baghjan oil field was going on The operation has been halted now httpstcod8mzsmwdPc pictwittercom0azjUzRRrRmdash ANI ANI July 22 2020The three injured experts were provided immediate medical treatment by doctors at the well site Subsequently they were taken to the burn unit section of Astha Nursing Home at Dibrugarh They have been released after dressing of the burn injuries It is expected that operations would once again resume at Baghjan on Thursday the officials saidWATCH Water being sprayed at well no5 of Oil India in Baghjan Tinsukia as part of the operations to douse fire at the location An explosion occurred near the well today while the operation was underway Three foreign experts present at the site injured amp taken to hospital pictwittercomu07jFADoW7mdash ANI ANI July 22 2020Natural gas and oil condensate started leaking from the stateowned OILs oil well at Baghjan in eastern Assams Tinsukia district around 57 days ago and it later caught fireBesides hostile weather OIL has been facing numerous other problems to put out the fire and cap the gas leak at Baghjan around 550 kms east of Assams main city of Guwahati OIL officials said that despite partial withdrawal of agitation by locals youth organisations and others including a section of local people agitating for higher compensation even as stateowned OIL continues to lose production of oil and gasSo far since May 27 over 15590 MT of crude oil and around 34 million standard cubic metres per day of natural gas has been lost as a section of agitators continue with their protests in a few locations in Tinsukia districtThough a section of agitators called off the protests and road blockade last month others continue to demand higher compensation for the affected people and hold OIL responsible for the mishap OIL has so far provided Rs 30000 to each of the affected families OIL officials said transportation of consignments comprising various heavy machineries and equipment from Rajahmundry Andhra Pradesh Vadodara Gujarat and other places was delayed due to COVID19 protocols and standard operating proceduresIn the meantime the Army has built a 150metre bridge over a water body to facilitate technical works to control the gas leak and oil well fire following a request from Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner Bhaskar PeguAround 10000 people have been evacuated and sheltered in 14 relief camps as the fire damaged many houses and various other properties Local people said the fire had left a trail of devastation in the adjoining areas including a famous lake Farms with standing crops as well as ponds and wetlands in the adjoining villages have also been affectedVarious NGOs and government bodies including Tata Energy Research Institute have been conducting environmental and pollution studies in view of the fire and blowout of natural gas and oil condensates The TERI is also arranging dronefly cameras for aerial photography and videography of affected areas and surveys are being carried out depending on weather conditionsHeavy rain and floods affected the operation and damaged many machinery and makeshift structures Despite that officials engineers and workers continued to work to control the situation the OIL official saidUS and Canadian experts and engineers who are associated with Singaporebased ALERT firefighters NDRF personnel and OIL and ONGC engineers continued their efforts to check the gas leak and douse the well fire at BaghjanCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news