Baghjan operations stumble again after gas leak
GUWAHATI, SEPT 08, 2020:
The blowout control operations at the gas well in Baghjan had to be stopped on Monday afternoon following a leak in the wellhead casing thread, which brought the successful gas diversion efforts of the morning to a nought.
Oil India Limited sources on Tuesday said the vertical release of gas from the wellhead had stopped on Monday morning after they diverted the gas to four areas, including two flare pits and the Baghjan EPS (Early Production System).
"But the operation had to be stopped after a few hours when our engineers noticed a leak from the well-head casing thread. So gas has once again started blowing out from the well, and the fire, which was extinguished for some hours, has once again started raging," OIL spokesperson, Tridiv Hazarika said.
"As on Tuesday afternoon, expert teams from Alert Disaster Control and OIL are carrying out the welding job to plug the leak in the casing thread. Hopefully, the repair work will be completed soon so we can resort to the same gas diversion strategy," he said.
After a series of failures to cap the blowout well, a shift in strategy on Monday had worked for some hours, after as many as 104 days since the blowout (uncontrolled escape of gas at very high pressure) from the well started on May 27, 2020, and three months after the well caught fire on June 9, 2020.
"Some amount of gas was successfully diverted to the two flare pits and some amount to Baghjan EPS on Monday," Hazarika said.
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