High-pressure spillage in OIL’s well: Authorities hope to cap it tomorrow

Oil India Limited will resume efforts to cap the high pressure spillage of fluids from the shut-in well in Dibrugarh’s Dirial tomorrow. Oil CMD Ranjeet Rath visited the leakage site today to take stock of the situation. Oil has alerted ONGC, to send experts if the situation arises. The OIL authorities hope that by tomorrow the well will be capped.

OIL Spokesperson Bhairob Bhuyan spoke to Northeast Live and shared details on this. He said, “Today we tried to cap the well, but because heavy pressure fluid is coming out continuously, we could not cap it. We tried at least 3-4 times. Around 4:30 pm we stopped the operations because of low light. Tomorrow 7 am we will start the operations again with a little change in technique. The top management they have already arrived today. The technology that we are using is basically a standard one. We are fully using the oilfield vehicle and equipments. But because of high pressure water jet is coming out we are unable to cap it. Tomorrow we will take up some new technique and hope by tomorrow we can cap the well properly. He (Ranjeet Rath) has already visited the site and has seen all the process what we are following. We will have a meeting and as per the consultations we will take the next step for tomorrow.”

The high pressure spillage entered the third day today instilling a sense of fear and panic among the people in the vicinity. The deafening sound from the well has also heightened fear amongst the people.

Although, OIL had stated that the fluids coming out from the well won’t cause any harm to the population around, locals had expressed concern that the situation might turn volatile if not brought under control at the earliest.

The corporation has claimed that the situation was a fallout of reported miscreant activity during which miscreants completely cut and stole the entire X-Mass tree above the adapter of the well. In this regard, OIL has lodged an FIR with the local Police and informed the District Administration Authority.