Well-capping measures underway at Baghjan Oil field blast

* TERI team to monitor noise and air quality

* Army to construct bridge at site

* NEIST to measure seismicity

A CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA, June 15: Even as preparations are underway to cap the Baghjan oil well, OIL paid ex gratia to the next of kin of the two fire fighters who died in the incident. OIL CMD Sushil Chandra Mishra, on Monday, handed over cheques of Rs 30 lakh to each of the wives of the deceased fire-fighters — Tikheswar Gohain and Durlov Gogoi of OIL —under the company's social security scheme at their residences in Duliajan and Namrup respectively.

Meanwhile, testing for capping the well has been completed for one of the two OIL CMT high-discharge water pumps of capacity 2500 GPM to be used for well control operation. Testing of the other pump is in progress. Civil work of digging/extension of the second CMT water reservoir (Capacity: 12000 KL) near the 'kill pump' area to accommodate more volume of water is in progress. Work on the debris, bunk house placement and kill pump area is in progress. Laying of delivery lines from the river bank station to the second CMT water reservoir of capacity 12,000 KL will also start. Placement of additional water pump at the water pump station at Dangori River bank has been completed and testing of the same is in progress.

Fabrication job of heat shields required for reducing heat hazards to working personnel at the site is in progress at OIL's Engineering Workshop at Duliajan. In view of the urgency of the operation to control the well, Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner Bhaskar Pegu requested the service of Army (2 Mountain division) to construct a bridge of around 150-metre length over a water body adjacent to the blowout well.

Mobilization of materials and personnel from 3 Corps Indian Army, required for logistics and construction of a bridge at the Baghjan site, is underway from Misamari and Tezu to Baghjan.

Joint inspection of equipment, mobilized from ONGC, Sibsagar by M/s Alert and ONGC Crisis Management Team (CMT) vehicles carrying equipment from ONGC-Rajahmundry are in transit. Relief and rehabilitation sanitization of all relief camps is in progress. The 14 Assam Regiment of Indian Army is operating a medical camp for the people of Bandarkhati relief camp.

On receipt of report on tremors in and around Baghjan area, OIL had requested the NEIST in Jorhat for measuring the seismicity, if any, because of the blowout incident. A joint visit was carried out by a team from NEIST and OIL on June 14 to identify the location for installing broadband seismographs at various radial distances from the well. 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. A team from TERI, Delhi is likely to arrive on Tuesday to measure and monitor the noise and air quality.

On Monday, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal met some senior scientists from IIT-Guwahati and CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) at his office in Janata Bhawan, and requested them to conduct a emergency study on the reported tremors at the Baghjan areas and submit its report, for the government to take appropriate and time-bound steps.

The IIT-G will also provide its expert guidance into the study and the Oil India Limited (OIL) would provide all the inputs relevant to conduct this study. The tremors were felt following the blow out of the condensate gas well, stated a release.

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