Two more months required to kill damaged Baghjan gas well in Assam Oil India chief

    Guwahati, Sep 29 (PTI) 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. PTI TR
RBT RBT

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)