A massive explosion occurred near well number five of Oil India Limited at Baghjan Oil Field located in Assam’s Tinsukia district. Three foreign experts were injured in the incident who were rushed to the hospital. Tridip Hazarika, spokesperson of OIL, confirmed the incident which was massive in intensity. The fire has been raging since June 9 following a gas blowout, while the operations were underway to douse fire the explosion took place.
Six foreign experts, had been roped in to cap the natural gas well and had expressed their inclination to exit the operations, The Hindu had reported. The foreign experts were earlier virtually held captive by locals along with 200 personnel from several Indian agencies for over 18 hours at the oil field.
Earlier, locals had blocked all exits from the Baghjan blowout site. This forced Indian officials and foreign experts to spend hours in torrential rain at the site. The locals were agitating against the death of an affected resident and demanded ₹2 crore in compensation for the relief camp inmate.
“A barricade was erected by local villagers blocking the road from well site since afternoon yesterday. More than 200 personnel from OIL, ONGC, Alert, Schlumberger and other contractors working at site including OIL Directors were not allowed to go out of the site after completing the day’s work yesterday,” PSU said in a statement on Sunday. The gas blowout occurred at the Baghjan oil well of PSU major OIL on May 27, which subsequently caught fire on June 9. Two OIL firefighters were killed in the incident then and has been spewing gas uncontrollably since then. More than 9,000 people were shifted to relief camps by the local administration as a precautionary measure. The agitated locals have also demanded the arrest of the OIL Chairman and MD for alleged negligence.
