Panic spread across Baghjan and neighbouring villages after an oil rig operated by Oil India Limited started discharging gas condensates uncontrollably for an hour. The village residents have demanded the local authorities stop all drilling operations until safety measures are fully installed in the area. OIL officials have assured that the situation is under control and safety measures are in place to prevent any further incident in the oil rig named BGI.
OIL spokesperson Bhairab Bhuyan told EastMojo that the situation was brought under control immediately. “A technical snag was reported from the BGI rig on Wednesday afternoon when gas started leaking from the rig. This is a part of a routine operation as we were attempting to bring the said oil rig into production. We have assured the locals that there is no reason to panic as safety measures have been put in place,” Bhuyan said.
According to Ritu Chandra Moran, a victim of the Baghjan oil fire tragedy, whose house is barely 300 metres away from BGI, a mist of oil condensates enveloped the area followed by a loud noise. “We panicked while some neighbours ran towards the rig inside the grassland in Maguri Motapung Wetland,” he told EastMojo.
Moran and several other neighbours were prepared to evacuate their houses while fire tenders and OIL authorities brought the situation under control.
Manoj Hazarika, a resident of Baghjan and one of the petitioners in the ongoing case related to damage caused by the May 2020 blowout, said that the fire tenders reached late. “Fire tenders arrived late. Only around 5:30 pm, the discharge came under control,” he added.
Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner Swapneel Paul sent officials, including one deputy superintendent of police and a circle officer, to take stock of the situation. “We have received a report that the situation was brought under control. I will wait for the report of the team visiting the site and suggest appropriate measures,” Paul told EastMojo.
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Village residents, on the other hand, have asked OIL to immediately stop drilling activity in the said oil rig. “There is already a Supreme Court and NGT appointed committee which deemed the drilling operations in and around Baghjan as illegal. The court committees have found that oil rigs are violating various environmental laws. Yet, Tinsukia district administration is allowing operation of these rigs right next to the rig that experienced an oil fire and a blowout that decimated the area,” Hazarika told EastMojo.
According to Hazarika, these violations came to light after the oil blowout in May 2020 followed by a fire on June 9 which burned down houses and farms of the Baghjan residents and impacted several villages in the vicinity. Hazarika and Niranta Gohain, a resident of Natun Gaon village, knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court representing the people who were impacted by the oil fire. The Supreme Court recently instructed the NGT to expedite all compensation issues related to Baghjan in two months.
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