Guwahati: The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) on Friday announced the successful capping of the gas blowout at the Rudrasagar gas field in Assam’s Sivasagar district, which had been leaking for the past 15 days.
“This blowout started on June 12, and has been capped successfully within shortest possible time following all the best practices,” Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a post on X.
He said the Crisis Management Team (CMT) of ONGC, along with international well control experts, successfully capped the gas well blowout through meticulous planning and coordinated efforts. The operation was completed safely without any injury, casualty, or fire, demonstrating the team’s crisis management expertise.
ONGC completed the operation to safely remove the damaged Blowout Preventer (BOP) from the wellhead.
“The effort was carried out with high precision and coordination to ensure stability and prevent any imbalance or toppling during the lifting process,” ONGC said in a statement.
Once the BOP was safely removed, the pre-positioned capping stack, prepared at the staging area, was carefully and accurately placed onto the wellhead. This pivotal action redirected the gas flow securely to the top of the capping stack, ensuring containment and control.
Before this, an extra-long boom crane and a 40-tonne crane had been used successfully to remove the 42 tubing stands from the derrick of the rig, clearing the path for the safe removal of the rig base from the wellhead.
“This marks the successful culmination of the capping operation, a testament to ONGC’s engineering excellence, meticulous planning, and strong collaboration with global and local partners. Subsequent steps in the well control roadmap will now be taken up as per operational protocols,” the ONGC said.
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The gas leak had sparked widespread fear, and 330 families were evacuated from surrounding areas as a precautionary measure.
The first team of mining engineers and experts from the United States reached the gas field on June 20, or the 8th day after the leak had begun. The team included experts from the International Well Control Agency.
