Assam CM directs Chandramohan Patowary to take stock of Baghjan situation

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal directed Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary to immediately visit Baghjan and take stock of the situation in view of the fire outbreak at the blowout site.

The Chief Minister also talked to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan regarding the Baghjan. Apart from his earlier telephonic conversation, the Chief Minister this evening also held a video conference with the Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, officers of the Petroleum Ministry and the foreign experts who came from Singapore and took stock of the ground situation.

Sonowal while expressing his apprehension about the impact of the fire on the environment and people living in the fringe areas, stressed on the need of putting out the fire at the earliest to ensure a conducive living condition for the people.

Dharmendra Pradhan apprised the Chief Minister of all the steps and technological interventions being made in synergistic way by all the stakeholders in putting the situation under control. He also informed that even air force has been kept on standby to deal with exigencies. It may be noted that Chief Minister Sonowal also called Union Home Minister Amit Shah and apprised him of the situation.

The Situation at Baghjan:

The producing well of Baghjan 5 under Baghjan Oilfield of Oil India Limited in Tinsukia district of Assam on May 27 became active while work over operations were on, triggering the evacuation of several hundred locals to safer areas. Immediately after the mishap that transpired around 10:30 am in the morning, the ongoing operations were immediately suspended and the well started releasing natural gas in an uncontrolled manner.

Meanwhile, the Oil India Limited (OIL) has said that it will take a further 4 weeks to plug the leak. "The situation demands the arrangement of large quantities of water, installation of high discharge pumps, and removal of debris. All the operations as per ALERT will take about 4 weeks. Efforts will be made to reduce this timeframe as much as possible", said OIL in a statement.

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