The continued natural gas leakage from a crude oil well at Bhatiapar locality of Sivasagar in eastern Assam has continued for two weeks since the blowout began on 12 June 2025. The particular well (RDS-147A of Rig SKP 135 under Rudrasagar oilfield) of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was under the operation of a private firm (SK Petro Services) on behalf of the state-sponsored Maharatna company.
The gas blow up was so frightening that nearly 350 families living surrounding the rig had to be evacuated for shifting to safer places urgently, as any activities relating to a spark or fire would destroy the entire locality. Besides over 1500 people, the uncontrolled gas blowing heavily impacted the air in the surrounding areas.
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When the gas leakage began at 11:45 am after a powerful explosion during a zone transfer perforation conducted by Krishna Agarwal, who owns SK Petro Services, the ONGC made a normal statement, asserting that the situation was under its control, as the gas blows did not catch fire or no injuries were, reported to anybody. But it continued for days with no progress on controlling the high-pressure gas flow and administration had already shifted a large number of villages to a relief camp at Bhati Bongaon, equipped with necessary amenities.
The ONGC employees started pumping water continuously from the nearby Dikhou river so that the rig remains cool and does not catch fire. In another statement, the ONGC stated that it deployed the ‘most experienced Crisis Management Team’ to contain the gas leakage at the well. Moreover, the operation was closely monitored by ONGC’s top management.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the site on 16 June and also interacted with the local people taking shelter in the relief camp. He announced an aid of Rs 25,000 per family affected by the blowout. Expressing concern over the incident, Sarma urged the ONGC authority to act with a mission mode to control the unabated gas flow. Later, he wrote to Union Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to take prompt action to prevent any escalation, arguing that the safety of the people living in the neighbourhood was the priority.
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After meeting with ONGC chairman Arun Kumar Singh, Sarma revealed that he had assured adequate compensation to the affected people in the locality. Even though the ONGC tried Plan A and Plan B for controlling the leak, it failed, and hence the third plan (permanently capping the well) is in action, added Sarma.
Meanwhile, a series of protests erupted in the locality against the negligence shown by the ONGC and SK Petro Services. The agitators belonging to Asomiya Yuba Manch, All Assam Tai Ahom Students’ Union, Sangrami Sena, etc, also demanded adequate compensation to local residents for the loss in agriculture and long-term general health.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Gaurav Gogoi, who is also the deputy leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, visited the affected area and took stock of the situation. Raijor Dal president and Sivasagar legislator Akhil Gogoi also visited the affected families and urged the ONGC authority to take prompt action to address the problem.
Facing the outrage of villagers and environmental activists, the ONGC management decided to call a team of international well-control experts to address the problem. Accordingly, three experts, namely Kenneth Wright, Robert Melancon, and William McDonald from a USA-based agency, arrived at the site on 20 June and started working on the capping operation. By then, the ONGC issued a statement claiming that ‘a significant progress in controlling the well at RDS 147A’ had been made.
It also added that the gas was nontoxic and the volume got reduced, posing no extra risk to the villagers living beyond 500 meters away. Reiterating its commitment to ‘operational excellence, environmental responsibility and community safety’, the ONGC statement also added that the high-pressure water pumping was carried out at 3000–3500 PSI (pounds per square inch) with a discharge rate of around 20 barrels per minute as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, a forum of graduate engineers raised a pertinent question about who would be made accountable for any mishaps in an ‘abandoned oil/gas well’, which was seemingly dried up and became not feasible for drilling by the state-run companies. Is there any mechanism to monitor the officials after they declare an oil/gas well as a dry one, and thereby facilitate private parties to seize the opportunity of drilling and extracting benefits? Moreover, can there be a secret understanding between the private parties and concerned corrupt officials that finally put the public safety and health in jeopardy, questioned the northeast India-based forum named All Assam Engineers’ Association (AAEA).
Expressing concern over the Sivasagar gas leakage, the AAEA urged both the ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL) to come clear about the so-called ‘abandoned’ wells, which have the potential to harm human life, property and environment, as the concerned private parties operating such wells often do not come forward to take responsibility. It also appealed to the Union government in New Delhi to hold the concerned ONGC/OIL officials accountable for any disaster at an oil or gas well after having declared it ‘dried up’.
The ongoing Bhatiapar gas flow and 2020 Tinsukia’s Baghjan OIL well blowout remind the same story, where private parties were operating the well (after these were assumed to be lacking sufficient oil /gas reserves) and accidents took place. It means that no lessons have been learnt on how to prevent such practices, said AAEA president Er Kailash Sarma.
It may be mentioned that Baghjan oilfield’s well number 5 experienced a catastrophic gas and oil leak, which caught fire subsequently, and it was also managed by a private party (after taking a lease from the OIL). The gas discharge started on 27 May 2020, and unfortunately, it caught fire on 9 June to make it a worse industrial disaster across the country. It could be completely doused on 15 November with the help of an expert team from Canada.
The disaster claimed three human lives, displaced over 9000 families, and damaged thousands of hectares of wetland, grassland, and forest areas. The destroyed ecosystem will probably need decades to regain its original form. But one can remember, a Guwahati-based journalist (now a popular talk show host) wrote in a prime English daily newspaper soon after the disaster, arguing that the nature in Baghjan had already returned to its original shape. At least a public procession was organized against the journalist, terming him a tout for the OIL. Is not another disaster for the Asomiya society after the Baghjan tragedy!