New Delhi: Senior officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas along with the CMDs of OIL and ONGC, the Crisis Management Team and other experts held detailed discussions with senior officials of the US Department of Energy (DOE) and US specialists on oil & gas disaster control on 12 June 2020 on containment of the Blowout and Fire in the gas well of Oil India Limited (OIL) at Baghjan, Tinsukia District of Assam. The foreign experts from Singapore also attended the meeting.
The US side shared their experience in dealing with similar gas blowout incidents in the US. The Indian side elaborated the entire spectrum of ongoing efforts at Baghjan to contain the fire and also preparations for capping the Well, including from the perspective of preventing spread of fire, water management system, removal of debris, use of modern technologies including drones and eventual remediation process to cap the well. The US DOE and experts have broadly endorsed the steps taken so far by OIL and ONGC experts, and also the plans outlined in containing the fire as well as to cap the Well. Both sides decided to exchange views again in the coming days and also review the progress on capping the Well. These discussions were held as part of the ongoing India-US strategic energy partnership.
