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At least 1,200 people were evacuated from Bhotiapara in Sivasagar district of Assam following a blowout in an oil and gas rig belonging to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The district administration has cordoned off an area of a kilometres in radius for the safety of the citizens, with the rig operated by a private contractor flowing uncontrollably for the past 24 hours. The incident has stoked fear among locals as they recalled the Baghjan blowout and oil fire incident of May 2020.
“During a regular work over operation, well no RDS 147 near Bhotiapara in Sivasagar district started discharging gas. Efforts to control the well and bring the situation to normalcy are in progress. ONGC teams, fire and emergency services and the district administration are working in coordination to address the emerging situation,” Ayush Garg, district collector of Sivasagar told Down To Earth (DTE).
“A total of 137 households with a population roughly totalling 1,200 people have been evacuated to safe zones. The entire area, a kilometre in radius, has been cordoned off. Cooked food is being served at regular intervals to the 1,200 people in a relief camp situated approximately two kilometres away from the site. A medical team is on standby to cater to the evacuated population as and when required,” Garg added.
According to an ONGC official, well no. RDS 147 is located in rig no SKP 135 of Rudrasagar oil field. The rig is located on the banks of the Dikhow river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra. The well started discharging at around 11:45 am
Locals in Rudrasagar told DTE about hearing a loud explosion. A private firm, SK Petro Services, was operating the well on behalf of the government-owned company, considered India’s largest oil and gas producer. According to sources in ONGC, the Sivasagar-based private firm was in the middle of a logging perforation operation in old crude oil, usually done to transfer crudes from abandoned oil wells to production wells.
“We are relieved to report that no fire or injuries to any personnel have occurred, and the situation is now fully under control. Reinforcement teams and technical specialists are being mobilised to ensure safe and swift normalisation of the well operations. ONGC is confident that the situation will be brought back to normal very soon,” stated a release from ONGC.
A local civil defence volunteer from Bhotiapara, Bastob Baruah, told DTE that as the rigs are close to human settlements, people started evacuating their homes themselves fearing the spread of condensates over their houses.
Social workers from the region, however, alleged that there was confusion and delays in distributing relief to the families. “We request ONGC to give adequate care to the locals who had to shift out of their homes in this blazing heat wave because of the blowout. There are issues of drinking water in these camps,” Saroj Baruah, a social worker from Rudrasagar who visited the relief camp on June 12 evening, told DTE.
Rudrasagar oilfield is one of the oldest oil fields in the country, with ONGC starting production since 1960. According to Saroj Baruah, a similar blowout happened in 1964 forcing the authorities to stall the movement of vehicles. “The older blowout site from 1964 is just a few hundred metres from the present blowout site,” Baruah said.
The incident has stoked fears among the locals that the blowout site might catch fire like the incident in Baghjan in June 9, 2020, after a blowout on May 27 that displaced close to 10,000 people in Tinsukia district of Assam.