Dead Xihu’s Tears: Oil India’s Gas Well Blowout In Assam Puts People, Wildlife In Danger

The air has a sulfuric stench to it, smells like a stew of rotten eggs and petrol. The air is also thick with choicest cuss words—an unapologetic assault on Oil India Ltd for its inability to plug a gas leak after a blowout in a well on May 27 in eastern Assam. The accident prompted authorities to relocate close to 2,500 residents away from the site, huddle them into temporary shelters set up in schools. Many of them reported laboured breathing and headache as the crude gas—shooting almost ten storeys up like a giant hissing geyser—blanketed the area. The families in those shelters are worried about their homes, livestock, and children amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the state. The men are finding refuge in expletives and card games when they are not foraging for firewood for the kitchen with a herky-jerky rain beating on the tin roof.

The downpour couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the technicians of Oil India working tirelessly to contain the damage and prevent the highly inflammatory gas from catching fire. A fire would be the last straw given the site’s location at Baghjan in Tinsukia district. It is barely 1.5 km from Dibru Saikhowa National Park—an ecological hotspot known for its birds and feral horses (fine military steed abandoned by the British during World War II)—and Maguri-Motapung Beel, a wetland on the fringes of this tree-hugging country, where pumpjacks and tropical rainforests fight for space. “Things don’t look good at all with the continuous leakage of gas and oil. It has already spread to the rice fields. Domestic animals have suffered too,” says Nirantar Gohain, an eco-campaigner from the area.

The rain has triggered runoffs to the ponds and streams, and oil slicks are visible in several areas. “We have seen a dead xihu (dolphin in Assamese) and fishes. The loud hissing sound is scaring off birds in the forests,” Gohain says. He fears a larger environmental disaster if the leaking well is not sealed. The state forest department issued a notice to Oil India on May 29 over the dead fishes and dolphin, a protected and endangered species. CM Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the pollution board chief for a report.

Oil India is aware of the consequences. It has contacted three foreign oilfield firefighting firms—Boots and Coots, Alert, and Wild Well Control—to repair the damage. A notice was served to John Energy Pvt Ltd, the company contracted to operate the well. Oil India warned of “action” against its employees if human error is detected. Spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika says the PSU will pay damages to the people for any loss of livelihood and livestock. The blowout may raise questions about Oil India’s plan to drill seven wells inside Dibru Saikhowa from about 1.5 km outside the park’s boundary. The company says it will use advanced technology, but citizens aren’t convinced as the blowout rekindled memories of past disasters. Spills from a pipeline burst—allegedly the handiwork of crude oil thieves—had sparked a fire on a rivulet of the Burhi Dihing river in Naharkatia this February and it burned for almost a week. Before that, 45 days and the help of Americans were needed to fully control a well blowout in Dibrugarh district in 2005.

By Abdul Gani in Guwahati