Guwahati, Nov 5: The snubbing unit brought from Canada reached Baghjan blowout well site of Oil India Limited (OIL) in Tinsukia district late Wednesday overcoming a brief blockade staged by a group of residents over “non-payment” of compensation to victims of gas well blowout mishap.
The snubbing unit comprising equipment weighing 59,000 kg was brought to Kolkata from Canada by an An124 (Antonov) aircraft, the largest civilian transport aircraft in the world.
The aircraft landed at the Kolkata Airport on the night of October 21, and thereafter, the equipment primarily comprising a snubbing truck mounted with a snubbing unit for “killing” the blowout well, was brought to the site by road.
Well ‘killing’ involves injecting artificial mud into the well at very high pressure to fill up the well and stop the gas from coming out.
The OIL sources said that Piston Well Services Inc. of Alberta (Canada) would be conducting the emergency snubbing services at the blowout well for Alert Disaster Control of Singapore.
Meanwhile, OIL on Thursday began preliminary arrangements before it actually proceeded to “to kill the well”.
“Arrangements for placing the snubbing unit are in progress with all equipment and accessories related to the snubbing operation in place at the site. It is expected that after completion of all necessary pre-operation activities, the well killing operation by the snubbing unit will commence within the next couple of days,” a statement by OIL today said.

Also read: Tinsukia DC seeks 7 days to resolve Baghjan compensation issue