Two more months needed to kill damaged Baghjan gas well: Oil India chief

PSU major Oil India Ltd (OIL)

on Tuesday said it will likely take overseas experts two more months to kill its damaged well at Baghjan in Assam, where gas has been gushing out uncontrollably for the last 126 days.

Addressing a press conference after the company's annual general meeting, OIL Chairman and MD Sushil Chandra Mishra said it has started taking action against employees responsible for the mishap, which has killed three persons.

"The fire at the well-head has been doused after we successfully diverted the gas on September 13. We are in the process of completely controlling the well and for that, a snubbing unit from Canada is likely to arrive within next three-four weeks," he said.

After the arrival of experts of the Alert Disaster Control with their equipment, it will take another 3-4 weeks to control and kill the well, Mishra said, adding, "a total of about eight weeks will be required to kill the well from now".

The company has spent around Rs 70 crore so far towards foreign experts in their efforts to douse the flame and control the well, the top OIL official said.

On August 17, OIL had achieved the first successful step towards dousing the blaze when it could place the Blow Out Preventer, a very heavy metal cover weighing several tonnes, in its third attempt at the mouth of the damaged gas well.

Assam Commerce and Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had said in the assembly on September 2 that a team of experts from Canada were on their way to Baghjan and it will take them two more months to douse the flame.