Baghjan

Assam: Baghjan’s Damaged Oil Well Contained After 5 Months

The worst industrial disaster of the Northeast took away the lives of three employees of the PSU major and injured several others.

Guwahati/Tinsukia: In a multi-agency effort, the damaged gas well at Baghjan in Assam was successfully ‘killed’ and the blaze fully doused on Sunday, after over five months of a blowout, said Oil India.

The worst industrial disaster of the Northeast took away the lives of three employees of the PSU major and injured several others. The process to control the well by joint efforts of multiple teams, including foreign experts, had also faced a series of setbacks.

“The well has been killed with brine solution and under control now. Fire has been doused completely,” Oil India Ltd (OIL) spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said in a statement. There is no pressure in the well now and it will be under observation over the next 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas migration and pressure build-up, he stated.

“Further operation to abandon the well is in progress,” Hazarika said, adding that experts from Singaporean firm Alert Disaster Control were actively engaged in the final operation to control the well.

Senior officials from the company said that Alert Disaster Control’s snubbing unit from Canada reached the site last month and the success could be achieved in an effort by experts from the global firm, OIL and ONGC.

Also read: ‘Cost to Ecosystem Has Taken a Back Seat’: Baghjan Fire Fallout Leaves Residents in a Lurch

The company’s Director (Exploration and Development) P. Chandrasekaran, Director (Operations) P.K. Goswami and Resident Chief Executive D.K. Das visited the well site following the successful killing operation after 172 days of the blowout and held detailed discussions with the experts from Alert.

The well no. 5 at Baghjan, in the Tinsukia district, was spewing gas uncontrollably for 173 days since May 27. The well caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL’s firefighters at the site.

On September 9th, a 25-year old electrical engineer of the OIL lost his life due to high voltage electric shock when he was working at the well site. On July 22nd, three foreign experts from the Alert Disaster Control, who were assisting OIL and ONGC experts in putting out the inferno, received burn injuries while removing a spool from the wellhead.

The company achieved the success of killing the well much ahead of its plans as announced by OIL Chairman and MD Sushil Chandra Mishra on September 29th, when he had said two more months were likely to be taken.

On August 17th, OIL had achieved the first successful step towards dousing the blaze when it could place the Blow Out Preventer (BOP), which is a very heavy metal cover weighing several tonnes, in its third attempt at the mouth of the gas well. The fire at the wellhead was doused after the company successfully diverted the gas on September 13th through pipes fitted from the BOP.

The inferno had brought everything in a diameter of about one kilometre around the well into ashes. Several houses were totally damaged, while environmentalists claimed “huge” damage to the biodiversity of the adjacent Maguri-Motapung wetland. Regarding compensation to the people near the Baghjan well, Mishra said that the company had deposited the money estimated by the Tinsukia district administration and the National Green Tribunal after surveying 2,756 families.

He also said that various assessments and impact studies of the blowout as well as the fires in villages and nearby forest areas have been undertaken by multiple agencies such as ERM India, TERI, CSIR-NEIST and IIT-Guwahati and “no major damage to the ecology” was found.

In the last week of September, Mishra had said that the total gas loss stood at 80,000 standard cubic meters and the loss due to the damaged well was Rs 6 crore, while forced closures and blockades by locals cost OIL Rs 179 crore.

The company had also lost production of 84,000 metric tonnes of crude oil due to protests after the blowout took place on May 27 and 22 wells were shut down by agitators in the Baghjan area at one point of time.

The OIL official had also said that it took actions against those employees, for whom this mishap took place. Within days of the blowout, two officials of the OIL were suspended for alleged negligence of duty at the gas well site, while a show-cause notice was served on Gujarat-based outsourced private well operator John Energy. Many senior employees of OIL and experts, as well as veterans of the company and ONGC, had said earlier that several standard operating procedures (SOPs) were violated at the well.

At least five inquiries were initiated to find out the facts -one three-member probe by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, a one-member probe by Assam Chief Minister and an internal five-member inquiry by the OIL.

Besides, two more crucial independent investigations of technical nature were carried out by the Directorate General Of Mines Safety (DGMS) and the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD).

Baghjan Blowout: Protests Continue in Natungaon Over Denial of Compensation

While OIL insists that residents of Natungaon are not eligible for compensation because there was ‘no damage’, the locals insist otherwise.

Guwahati: Though Oil India Limited (OIL) has finally managed to divert the flow of natural gas from the well which met with a blowout on May 27 in Assam’s Baghjan, causing a raging fire and devastation in and around the area in Tinsukia district, villagers in neighbouring Natungaon have accused the public sector unit of refusing them compensation even though they were affected by the disaster.

Several Natungaon residents that The Wire spoke to said though they too had faced loss of property and means of livelihood due to the fire that began at the blowout site in neighbouring Baghjan from June 27 onwards, they have only been granted a one-time compensation of Rs 25,000-30,000. This, they said, has led them to resort to continuous protests and road blockades. The latest road blockade was on September 18.

The Wire reached out to OIL authorities on the matter, who indicated clearly that Natungaon is not eligible for further compensation as there is “no damage as such”.

“Natungaon is not eligible as there is no damage as such. Interim compensation has been given to some families from that village. There is no damage severity.”

Also Read: Baghjan Fire: NGT Endorses Interim Report Rejected by Oil India

Some Natungaon residents who were impacted by the blowout incident at OIL’s Well Number-5 at Baghjan and received only Rs 25,000 compensation have now demanded that they be included in the Category 2 of the compensation recommendations by the National Green Tribunal this past August 6.

The NGT order was based on the recommendations of an experts’ panel formed to oversee the severity of damages of people residing around the affected oil well. The panel had stated:

“An initial amount of Rs 25 Lacs will be released immediately to all the affected under category (i) whose information is already available with the Office of the District Administration. For the affected families under the category, (ii) the amount of 10 lacs will be released immediately within an outer limit of 15 days, based on the information already available with the Office of the District Administration. The compensation amount, if any already paid, shall be deducted from the aforesaid amount of interim compensation.” (sic)

Satyajit Buragohain, a local student leader who received the one-time interim compensation at Natungaon, said, “It is highly suspicious of OIL to act as if it is abandoning us. I am suspicious that maybe OIL wants to create a rift between the two affected villages of Baghjan and Natungaon. We want the affected people from Baghjan to be compensated as well. No one should be deprived. None of the victims from Natungaon have been included in any of the three categories stated by the NGT.”

He said, “This, when gas condensates have been poured into our backyards, our tea gardens, and our fields. The Dibru River divides the two villages. And we are located in the downstream of the river. Around 637 families from Natungaon have only received the Rs 25,000 interim compensation despite the ‘extensive damages’ they incurred to their farms and properties. We require further compensation as the losses are long-term.”

Damage to crops in Natungaon. Photo: By arrangement

Interim compensation is meagre

Mahesh Hatibarua has a four-bigha tea garden at Natungaon. He said that officials from the district administration visited him to check the extent of damage affecting his property soon after the fire broke out. They told him the tea leaves were still green and therefore there was no damage.

“But three months later, my tea garden which I have cultivated for the past 15 years is totally destroyed. I doubt that tea will ever grow again. The Rs 25,000 one-time interim compensation is meagre as my running and maintenance cost for the garden is equivalent to that compensation amount,” he said.

On September 12, he met the Tinsukia deputy commissioner about the matter. “I requested him to visit my damaged tea garden and help chalk out a plan to what can be done. I am still running around. Meanwhile, my brother, to help run our family, has started a small tea shop. We demand that victims like my family and others be included under Category 2 of the NGT compensation recommendations. This is our last resort,” he said.

“OIL in a report to the NGT stated that Natungaon is not affected. But the NGT rejected this aspect of the report. It should also be reported that OIL has no say in this issue, and it is only the district administration that will decide the matter,” said Niranta Gohain.

Gohain runs Wave Ecotourism (WE), an entrepreneurial tourism venture in the area and is also the general secretary of a local organisation named Bahankhyam Unnayan Shakti taking up the rights of the victims of the Baghjan fire.

“The attempt to create division between the two villages was present since the beginning. The scale of damage in Baghjan is within the 500 metres radius. Since Natungaon is located downstream, the damage is more within the three kilometres radius of the disaster site,” he said, adding, “We won’t let our protest die out; it will continue, and OIL should feel wary about it.”

OIL, in a response to the interim report of the NGT (prepared by the experts’ panel), had, though, addressed him Niranta Gohain as a “so-called environmentalist”. It also called Gohain’s statement in the interim report, not ‘credible’.

On September 18, protestors blocked a road leading to an oil rig near Limbuguri Tea Estate near Natungaon. Later in the day, a public meeting was organised near Natungaon where the affected people had an interaction with the new deputy commissioner Diganta Saikia.

Smoke billows from a fire at Baghjan oil field, a week after a blowout, in Tinsukia district, June 9, 2020. Photo: PTI

Union minister’s statements in parliament

This past September 14, Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan told parliament that “compensation amount of Rs 25 lakh each for 12 families have been handed over” by OIL at the local DC’s office. The minister, in response to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha stated that the Rs 25 lakh compensation to these families were granted as per category 1 “whose houses have been completely gutted by fire” as per the direction of the NGT.

The minister was most likely referring to families in the Baghjan area. Prior to the NGT order, on July 19, the then DC, Bhaskar Pegu, had reportedly handed over Rs 20 lakh to 11 affected families of Baghjan.

When asked about the Rs 25 lakh figure as against the Rs 20 lakh that was handed over to some families, the OIL spokesperson told The Wire, “Coming to the Union minister’s comment on Rs 25 lakh being paid to families as per category 1 (of the NGT order), I am not sure about such amount being paid. I have to check for myself as I am not sure. The DC office paid Rs 20 lakh. Maybe, he was referring to the pending dues and making a reference to the NGT verdict. Maybe, in-between, the government may have given Rs 5 lakh. I do not know. Let me check.”

Also Read: Baghjan: Social Workers Say OIL Overlooked Mental Health of Blowout Victims, Violated CSR Rules

As against the minister’s written statement to Lok Sabha that Rs 10,93,50,500 has been deposited with the district administration for the compensation, the OIL spokesperson said, “The range of the impact of the blowout incident varies. Till now, OIL has released an amount of Rs 11.20 crores.”

“An amount of Rs 9 crore to around 3,000 families have been dispensed to the DC office for interim relief. Also, Rs 20 lakh each to 11 families who lost their houses due to the fire even after not waiting for a report from the DC office.”

Like the minister had stated, the spokesperson too said that “the DC office has assessed 2,756 families who had faced the impact of the blowout. The state machinery is compiling a report. It is an assessment of the total number of people and their addresses. It has to achieve a massive target. So, we are still waiting for the assessment part. It takes time and the government is doing it.”

Oil discharge in Natungaon. Photo: By arrangement

It is not just the confusion over eligibility of the compensation that is creating dissatisfaction among the locals. The NGT order had also recommended, “An immediate health insurance policy including COVID 19 will be made available by OIL to all affected individuals and families by the Well Baghjan-5 blowout and explosion and who are presently taking shelter in the relief camps within 7 days from the passing of the order by the Hon’ble NGT for interim compensation.”

The Wire asked the OIL spokesperson whether this was done. “We are waiting for the final report of the NGT and also for the final assessment report from the district administration. Everything will depend on the details from the assessment report,” said the spokesperson.

Dhamen Moran, a victim from the Baghjan area who incurred losses both in his house and the farm field because of the condensate gas seeping into his backyard, said, “So far, there is no mention of granting us health insurance from the OIL.”

More Than 500 Students, Researchers Ask Environment Ministry To Revoke EIA 2020 Draft

‘We urge the MoEF&CC to withdraw the draft notification and instead strengthen the existing EIA notification with a new proposal.’

Smoke billows from a fire at Baghjan oilfield a week after the blowout, in Tinsukia district, June 9, 2020. Photo: PTI.

Over 500 academics, scientists and researchers from various educational institutes have penned an open letter to the Union environment ministry enumerating their concerns with the draft Environmental Impact Assessment notification 2020, which has drawn ire from multiple quarters for its scheme to ease business by diluting regulations that protect the environment and safeguard the rights of people affected by prospective projects.

The letter was initiated by PhD students from different institutes. The signatories themselves belong to more than 130 institutions and universities, including the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; some of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research; some IITs; the National Centre for Biological Sciences; and the Wildlife Institute of India. The letter criticises the draft notification and calls for better and more inclusive environmental decision-making.

The Wire is publishing their statement in full, followed by the list of signatories.

An open letter to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change

September 2, 2020

We, a group of academics, scientists and researchers engaged in various capacities, express our deep concern regarding India’s sustainable future in the light of the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020 (hereafter ‘Draft Notification’), recently proposed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India.

As citizens of this country, many of us have sent our feedback and comments on the document by the specified deadline, 11th August, 2020. However, limited circulation and publicity of the Draft Notification compounded by a lack of its availability in most Indian languages hindered true and inclusive public participation. Moreover, many traditional communities of rural India, often most affected by unappraised developmental projects, also lack the technology and access to take part in such an exercise. Considering that the Central Government is currently restrained by Karnataka High Court from publishing the final draft till 7th September, 2020, we find this time opportune to present our chief concerns on the Draft Notification with this press release to further a wider public debate on the subject.

Overall, we have come to the conclusion that the Draft Notification, in its current form, is likely to seriously threaten our country’s ecological and environmental security. The Draft Notification neither adheres to the fundamental objectives of its parent legislation, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, nor does it align with our country’s commitments under various international agreements and conventions.

The existing EIA 2006 Notification itself has been deemed insufficient in meeting its stated aims. The undermining of environmental safeguards by non-compliant and unmonitored industries and practices has often led to environmental disasters including overwhelming loss of biodiversity, human lives and livelihood, as happened recently with the Vizag gas leak and the Baghjan oil-well blowouts. Rather than strengthening the EIA process, the Draft Notification tends to promote industrialisation at the cost of the environment. Some of our major concerns are that this Draft Notification:

1. Legitimises ex post facto environmental clearances and encourages industries with no prior clearance to commence operations and eventually get regularised by paying a penalty amount (Clause 22) even after causing an irreversible damage to the environment, which is contrary to the precautionary approach of EIA regulations.

2. Mandates the baseline data collection period to prepare an EIA report for all projects as only one season (except for river valley projects), wherein additional data from the monsoon season is required only if prescribed by the Appraisal Committee (Clause 13(2)) – this is severely inadequate for evaluating the seasonal impact of the project on ecology and the environment.

3. Includes solar thermal power plants, extraction of ordinary earth for linear projects, and maintenance dredging in the list of projects that do not require prior environmental clearances (Clause 26). Without proper understanding of the possible impacts of these projects, when carried out on large scales, such exemptions may negatively affect existing terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, hamper wildlife movement and fragment habitats.

4. Reclassifies many potentially ecosystem-damaging and even some highly polluting red category industries as ‘B2’ category (p. 37-45, Schedule), thereby exempting them from scoping (Clause 12(1)) and public consultations (Clause 14(2)) and allowing approval based on Environmental Management Plan Report instead of EIA Report (Clause 13(11)).

5. Exempts ‘A’ and ‘B1’ category projects, including many projects listed in red category (such as thermal power plants (p. 37-45, Schedule)) from having to conduct public hearings for modernisation and expansions below 50% (Clause 14(2)) and reduces the minimum notice period for furnishing a public response from an already insufficient 30 days to 20 days (Appendix-I(3)), both of which severely compromise public consultation processes.

6. Allows only project proponents and government authorities to officially report cognisance of violations (Clause 22(1)) and non-compliance of conditions (Clause 23(1)), curbing the rights of any other concerned or affected person.

7. Dilutes post-clearance monitoring by reducing the mandatory compliance report submission by project proponents from half-yearly to yearly (Clause 20(4)).

With the rise in pollution-related health impacts already causing high mortality in India, the importance of having stronger regulations and overseeing polluting industries cannot be overstated.

A report by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, published in June 2020, pointed out that rapid changes in India’s climate will worsen the challenges facing us by affecting the country’s biodiversity, food, water, and energy security as well as public health. Since 2016, India has slipped 27 places from its global Environment Performance Index (EPI) rank in 2020, and is now ranked 168 out of 180 countries. Our country’s declining environmental performance mandates immediate pro-environmental and ecologically sound developmental measures, which are not addressed by this Draft Notification.

We, therefore, urge the MoEF&CC to withdraw the Draft Notification and, instead, strengthen the existing EIA Notification with a new proposal, following wider and more inclusive public consultation, preferably after the ongoing pandemic subsides. Such a revised proposal must also incorporate views and suggestions from domain experts and scientists from various concerned fields, with the objective of promoting an eco-sensitive and responsible model of economic growth.

Signatories: (The signatories express their personal views in this statement, and the views do not represent the stance of any institute they may be affiliated with.)

Attempt to Cap Gas Well at Baghjan Fails, OIL Says Reasons Being Examined: OIL

Well number 5 at Baghjan has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 66 days since May 27 and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL’s firefighters at the site.

Guwahati: An attempt to cap OIL’s damaged gas well at Baghjan in Assam which has been spewing gas for 66 days failed on Friday. The wagon which was used to put a lid on its mouth gave in and toppled over, the company said.

The reasons for the failure of the capping operation are being examined, the PSU said in a statement. It, however, did not specify when the operation will be tried again.

“All operational crew reached site early in the morning today for carrying out the planned capping operation. The blow out preventer (BOP) stack was hooked up with the Athey Wagon [a type of hydraulic lift] for placing on the wellhead.

“While the final capping operation was being attempted, the Athey Wagon toppled over at the last moment and the attempt did not succeed. Reasons for the same are being ascertained for next course of action,” it added.

The company said that well-killing fluid is ready at the site and all the six high discharge water pumps are operational for spraying water on the wellhead during the operation.

The BOP is a very heavy metal cover placed on the mouth of any gas or oil well to stop leakage of the fuel from under the ground.

The well number 5 at Baghjan has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 66 days since May 27 and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL’s firefighters at the site.

National Disaster Response Team (NDRF) personnel carry out search and rescue operations after two firemen of Oil India Limited went missing since an oil well at the company’s Baghjan oilfield exploded, in Assam’s Tinsukia district. Photo: PTI

On July 22, three foreign experts from Singaporean firm Alert Disaster Control received burn injuries while they were removing a spool from the wellhead.

OIL said that it continues to face protests and blockades across many of its wells and field locations, leading to heavy production loss in the last few months.

It said that due to the blockades there was a loss in production of 652 MT of crude oil and 1.53 MMSCM of natural gas on Thursday because of disruptions in several oil and gas wells.

“Cumulative production loss since May 27, 2020, due to bandhs and blockades: 18,852 MT crude oil, 44.88 MMSCM of natural gas,” the release said.

OIL said that various assessments and impact studies of the blowout, as well as the blaze in villages and nearby forest areas, are on by multiple agencies such as ERM India, TERI, CSIR-NEIST and IIT-Guwahati.

About the relief and rehabilitation process, OIL informed that the surveys for assessment of damage for compensation by Tinsukia district administration are in progress in both Tinsukia and Doomdooma circles.

“The total number of families surveyed till July 29 in both Tinsukia and Doomdooma circles is 2,545,” it added.

Over 9,000 people were initially shifted to 13 relief camps after the blowout in May and subsequent fire in June.

Baghjan: Social Workers Say OIL Overlooked Mental Health of Blowout Victims, Violated CSR Rules

On July 18 , a 45-year-old in Baghjan, died at the Assam Medical College Hospital in Dibrugarh district, after consuming pesticide. This has underlined the need for immediate attention to mental health.

Guwahati: Two recent complaints raised against Oil India Limited include the charge that the company as overlooked the mental health of displaced villagers affected by the Baghjan oil well disaster, and violated corporate social responsibility guidelines while dispensing compensation.

OIL is one of India’s biggest fossil-fuel public sector units.

As OIL continues to douse the fire engulfing well number 5 at Baghjan, two Guwahati-based social workers have said that it has been lackadaisical in providing psycho-social support to disaster-affected villagers rendered homeless and traumatised by the fire.

Social workers Rakesh Hazarika and Dharitri Nath of the civic organisation Global Pandemic Response Forum (GPRF) and its offshoot programme Centre for PTSD Alleviation and Research (CPAR) blamed OIL for overlooking chemical disaster (industrial) guidelines of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in providing psychosocial support to the affected people in Baghjan.

On July 18 Sukreshwar Neog, a 45-year-old inhabitant from a village in Baghjan, died at the Assam Medical College Hospital in Dibrugarh district after consuming pesticide.

Also read: Whose Oil Is it in Assam – and Whose ‘Development’?

According to news reports, Neog had not been able to get compensation for his house which had burned down as a result of the fire.

Speaking to The Wire, Hazarika and Nath said that despite multiple communications to OIL’s administration over this, there has been no response of any kind.

Emails were sent to the OIL’s chairman and managing director, to the executive directors, and to the general manager (medical service) by the duo on July 2, June 25 and 30, and June 17, respectively.

On July 5, the activists mailed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) where they complained that OIL has been dragging its feet over their proposal to provide organised psychosocial support and mental health counselling to the affected people at Baghjan.

Nath on July 10 wrote a letter to the chairman of the committee of experts which was constituted by the NGT to oversee the crisis meted out by the May 27 gas blowout incident and the subsequent fire on June 9.

In the mail to NGT she stated that the incident has exposed the people to long-term psychological afflictions as they now have anxiety, stress, and depression.

She mentioned that displacement, life in relief camps, loss of property, livelihood, and the uncertainties of future rehabilitation are taking a severe toll. She also said that the sound pollution, pollutants in their drinking water, poor air quality, periodic ground tremors, along with the ongoing pandemic, were trying.

Also read: COVID-19 and Mental Health: Suicidal Tendencies and Self-Harm on the Rise

“In the letter to the PMO we stated that during the Bhopal gas tragedy mental health professionals at the behest of ICMR were on the ground for 60 days after the incident. We also stated that we are at better capacity in achieving a better response with regards to the Baghjan tragedy. Psychosocial support and mental health counselling come within the gambit of relief and rehabilitation.,” they said.

When they contacted officials with the district mental health programme in Tinsukia district, they were told that they have been assigned COVID-19 duty.

The activists plan to write to international organisations to help them run yearlong mental health support camps for the Tinsukia victims.

NDMA guidelines for Chemical Disasters (section 4.2.7 under Medical Preparedness in Page 34) within chapter 4 titled ‘Guidelines for Chemical Disaster Management’ state, “Medical preparedness will include the recognition of the impact of chemical disasters, and shall focus on injuries, illness and public health problems including psychosocial trauma that results in their wake.”

Another norm under section 4.4.1 under Important Elements of Response (page 39) point number 9 states, “The civic responsibilities including identification of victims, safe disposal of dead bodies, preventing the spread of contamination and post-disaster psychosocial care shall also be dovetailed into the practise of various responders.”

Section 4.4.3 of the same chapter under Relief and Rehabilitation segment clearly and categorically states, “The psychological impact of a chemical disaster manifested as psychosocial trauma including psychological reactions, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological ailments in displaced disaster victims needs to be addressed. Counselling by psychologists and psychiatrists for those suffering from mental trauma is an essential element of medical rehabilitation.”

Both Hazarika and Nath said none of these guidelines have been put to use by OIL.

This reporter mailed OIL’s management for response regarding any initiative on their part to initiate programmes to address the mental health of the affected people in Baghjan. The copy will be updated if and when they reply.

The Wire also reached out to Tridiv Hazarika, who looks after public relations at OIL.

Also read: ‘Cost to Ecosystem Has Taken a Back Seat’: Baghjan Fire Fallout Leaves Residents in a Lurch

“We have been doing certain things, but they are not formal. The Art of Living Foundation had conducted some sessions at Baghjan village a few weeks ago. We said we have no issues as they will be doing this on their own,” said Hazarika.

‘Violation of CSR guidelines’

The other complain against OIL, over violating CSR guidelines, was brought by three upper Assam based petitioners, Soneswar Narah, Mohammad Afreen Rahman and Samudrajit Gohain, who last month filed a case against OIL at the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on grounds that the wells contained gas-condensates and that OIL had not taken the requisite precautions.

According to the trio, a district administration notification on July 17 (No.TSK/Oil Cell/Baghjan Gas Blowout/fire breakout case/Pt-III/2020/8) mentions compensation payment of Rs 2.20 crores to 11 families. “But very strangely, it also mentioned that the said compensation amount will be debited from the CSR fund of A/C no: 7154010000892 of A.G.V Bank in Tinsukia,” the three said.

They pointed out that not a single rupee of CSR fund can be used by any corporate entity to pay off any fine or compensation, fees for clearance or licence and so on. CSR fund can be used for only specific purpose and violation of CSR laws is now a punishable criminal offence for company directors.

Rahman told The Wire, “A journalist sought the opinion of both Tinsukia DC and OIL. They said that the compensation amount has not been paid from the CSR fund. Only that the CSR fund money was parked in that said bank account and compensation money is being paid out from the “operational account” of OIL. This has added to the confusion.”

The activists cited the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India guidelines for auditors, which say that CSR spending cannot be mingled with other accounts and has to be maintained in a separate account. “We believe both Tinsukia DC and OIL owe better and convincing clarification,” said Rahman.

‘Cost to Ecosystem Has Taken a Back Seat’: Baghjan Fire Fallout Leaves Residents in a Lurch

“What the people need to know and what they will get is still shrouded in mystery. There is no transparency or clarity from anyone,” a source told The Wire.

Guwahati: On July 15, energy giant Oil India Limited (OIL) said that the fire at Baghjan Well number 5 is expected to be doused within the next few days.

However, the inhabitants of villages in and around Baghjan, who have for the last 50 days been reeling from the gas blowout incident on May 27 gas and the unassessed destruction left behind by the fire on June 9, now have to endure the ‘politics’ surrounding compensation, sources told The Wire.

On Saturday, July 18, Sukreshwar Neog, a 45-year-old inhabitant from a village in Baghjan, passed away at the Assam Medical College Hospital in Dibrugarh district after consuming pesticide. According to a report by a local television channel, Neog took the drastic step after he was unable to avail compensation for his house which had been burned down as a result of the fire.

Protests also broke out on the same day and villagers blocked roads in the area demanding compensation.

On July 7, a group of protesters, mostly inhabitants from the villages in and around the affected site, met with officials of the Tinsukia district administration. However, the talks failed to make any progress.

Since the oil field caught fire on June 9, continuous protests have led to the disruption of OIL’s commercial activities.

East Mojo, a regional online news portal, reported on July 7, that scores of displaced inhabitants marched towards the oil well site in an attempt to jump into the well and ‘end their lives’. The protestors, as per the report, were stopped by police and district officials from reaching the site of the gas well.

Sources told The Wire said that two movements have been initiated by inhabitants from two villages – Baghjan village and its adjacent Natun Rangagora village.

Also read: Whose Oil Is it in Assam – and Whose ‘Development’?

“I am worried about the dirty politics currently at play and that too at the cost of the inhabitants. There is an attempt to control the local leaders from some groups or organisations to make an ‘effective bargain’ and to shift any responsibility. Some of the leaders are now contractors. Amidst the debate over the politics surrounding compensation for the affected, attention to the fragile ecosystem and the damage it has suffered has taken a back seat,” the source told The Wire.

The source further said, “Some of the groups or organisations vying for compensation for the people are not even registered. What is needed are people with some iota of expertise who can lead the people and speak about the entire issue – not just about the affected people but also about the local ecosystem. Some so-called ‘environmentalists’ are also trying to take advantage of the situation.”

Speaking to The Wire, Niranta Gohain, who runs the NGO Wave Ecotourism (WE), said, “The villagers take the downstream road to reach Tinsukia. But the road has now been closed. Both Baghjan and Rangagora have been affected almost equally. The village near the Maguri Motapung Beel (an important wetland that serves as a source of livelihood for the people of the villages in and around Baghjan) is at a level higher than the Beel. The incident occurred at the level of the Beel. The fire was fed by the winds as Maguri is near the river and hence, more impacted. Protests should also focus on the waste that is flowing in the Brahmaputra.”

Maguri Motapung Beel. Photo: Birendra Kumar Chutia of Green Vision, North East

OIL initially had directed that an amount of Rs 25 crore be deposited with the district magistrate of Tinsukia district as part of a ‘damage pay’. But that direction by OIL was deferred by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

However, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), in an order dated July 2, deferred the direction to OIL to deposit the amount of Rs 25 crore till the actual amount and disbursement plan is formulated by the eight-member committee appointed by the NGT.

“Politics surrounding the hullaballoo of compensation cannot be ruled out. What the people need to know and what they will get is still shrouded in mystery. There is no transparency or clarity from anyone. It is very worrying especially for the people whose houses have been burnt. Will they get new houses? And what about employment for those who have lost their livelihood, who were dependent on the ecosystem for their survival? There are many questions that require to be asked,” a source told The Wire.

Kamal Baruah, an adviser to Milan Jyoti Sangha, a local group that held meetings with the district administration, said, “We had a meeting, but it was not fruitful. Local businesses have closed, and scores are unemployed. No one can go anywhere as the road to Tinsukia town is closed and communication is shut. OIL has assured us that it will dole out compensation but how much it will give remains to be seen.”

Also read: Oil India Skipped Public Hearings Before Expanding Drilling in Assam’s Baghjan

Northeast Now, another regional online news portal, in a report on July 9 said that OIL had provided compensation of Rs 9 crore as ‘immediate relief to the people affected by the fire’.

“Resident chief executive of OIL on Thursday sent a letter to Tinsukia deputy commissioner Bhaskar Pegu regarding the compensation provided to the affected people of Baghjan. In the letter, OIL has clearly mentioned about the one-time compensation given to the affected people. Earlier, OIL transferred an amount of Rs 4.83 crore to 1,610 families who were affected due to the Baghjan blowout. Altogether, 1,390 families will get Rs 30,000 as immediate relief. A total of 30,000 families have received the compensation till date,” Northeast Now reported.

“In addition to the people affected, I am concerned about Maguri Motapung Beel and what will happen to both. I am concerned that many people may be left out of the compensation plan for people. I feel whatever data is put for assessment may only offer support for OIL. Politics is at play. There is a possibility that compensation may be reduced by giving commissions to particular middlemen,” another source told The Wire.

NGT Accepts a New Case Against OIL for Baghjan Blowout

The petitioners have said that the wells contained gas-condensates and OIL hadn’t taken the requisite precautions.

Guwahati: The National Green Tribunal (NGT, eastern zone) accepted a new case against Oil India Limited (OIL) and other respondents on July 7 vis-à-vis the Baghjan oil-well blowout. This time, the grounds are that the wells contained gas-condensates and that OIL hadn’t taken the requisite precautions – a point the petitioners have said previous cases against OIL don’t consider.

On May 27, an oil-well at OIL’s Baghjan oil field began to leak gas and oil uncontrollably, displacing a few thousand people living in the field’s wider neighbourhood. About two weeks later, on June 9, the leak caught fire, and two OIL employees lost their lives. The fire continues to burn to this day, even as OIL and other disaster management experts continue to find a way to douse the inferno.

The NGT, represented by Justice S.P. Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda, had first observed that since three other cases (OA 41/2020, OA 43/2020 and OA 44/2020) had been filed against OIL in June, the court was “inclined” to dismiss the new petition, registered on July 1.

However, the tribunal admitted the petition after the applicants’ senior counsel submitted “that the specific question raised with regard to classification of gas condensate has not been raised in other cases, which, according to the applicants, would be relevant for the assessment of the environmental damage and remediation correctly.”

The new petition has now been tagged along with the other three for the next hearing, set for July 29.

Also read: Whose Oil Is it in Assam – and Whose ‘Development’?

The case was filed by Soneswar Narah, a farmers’ rights activist; Mohammad Afreen Rahman, an agricultural consultant; and Samudrajit Gohain, a mining engineer. The defendants are OIL, the Pollution Control Board (PCB) of Assam, the Union environment ministry, the National Board for Wildlife and the Wildlife Institute.

According to experts, gas-condensate wells are highly inflammable and more toxic than ‘conventional’ oil wells to the local environment. In contact, natural gas condensates irritate the respiratory system, the eyes, the skin and the stomach are also caused by gas condensate.

The petitioners told The Wire that after scrutinising details of the Baghjan blowout incident, they determined that the three prior petitions had “missed out on some critical points that could have made OIL and the other parties severely accountable, as no precautionary measures akin to international measures were taken beforehand.”

The trio accused OIL and the other respondents in the petition of “hiding critical information from the public,” adding that “the incident was bound to happen sooner or later, and it was a systematic failure” on OIL’s part.

“The condensate mass is three to four times more than that of the gas,” Gohain explained to The Wire. “Any field or well [with] condensates is three to four times more likely to cause a blowout.”

According to him, even if the condensate accounts for a small fraction of the well’s contents, operators should have adopted blowout prevention measures as soon as they had evidence that condensates were present because the blowout is driven by the condensates. “The moment condensate is discovered during well-logging or exploratory survey, international-standard safety precautions should have been taken,” he said.

These precautions include two mechanical valves and a chemical valve during drilling and production. “If no condensate is present and only gas is, then only one chemical valve is sufficient to prevent blowouts,” he continued. “To the best of our knowledge, at the Baghjan well, no mechanical valves were used when [work was underway]. It seems only a chemical valve was used.”

Also read: Oil India Skipped Public Hearings Before Expanding Drilling in Assam’s Baghjan

Rahman, the agricultural consultant, said, “It is good that the NGT decided to hear our case based on the important points we have mentioned. The damage is already done and will take years for the local habitat to heal.”

Narah, with Rahman, also blamed the PCB: “The closure notice of June 19 by PCB explicitly [states] that OIL failed to submit an annual report of the wells over the years. Therefore, if they were aware that OIL was not [compliant], what stopped PCB from doing their due diligence over the years?”

On June 24, NGT had ordered the constitution of an eight-member committee of experts to visit and inspect the site, and submit a preliminary report in 30 days from the order. The tribunal also directed “OIL to deposit an initial amount of Rs 25 crore with the district magistrate, Tinsukia district, Assam,” and to “abide by further orders of the tribunal.”

What Those Displaced by Baghjan Fire Need: Lessons From Relief Camps

Not enough attention is being given to the needs of people displaced.

What began as an idea among friends went on to develop into a concerted attempt to stand beside victims of the Baghjan oilfield fire and provide relief to the displaced.

The oilfield inferno and the catastrophe that followed compelled us to head towards those living in relief camps, whose lives are more uncertain than ever. The authorities from OIL, who planned only for meal staples, have not deigned to ensure minimum dignity for those displaced.

For the last three days, we visited these campsites, distributed essentials among stranded families and came up with the following observations and appeals.

June 12: No adequate stocktaking

On arriving at the Guijan High School camp, we were told that the people there were inhabitants of the Notun Gaon area. Notun Gaon, which falls within a 1.5-km radius of the blowout site, still shakes like a ceaseless earthquake. This area also borders the Maguri Motapung Beel, a rich biodiversity hotspot. It goes without saying that flora and fauna has been deeply affected, and the effects are likely irreversible.

It came as a shock that there had been no survey, no stocktaking, of the damage by authorities till Friday. We appeal to the government to conduct a thorough study of the affected regions, and the concerned departments (geology/geography/chemistry etc.) of universities in our region to involve themselves if possible, to arrive at a speedy solution.

The number of victims was huge, and our funds limited. We also had no access to a proper record of the people displaced. There are 14 camps scattered across areas, at varying distances from Tinisukia township. A proper head count of stranded people is not yet available in the public domain. Also, we couldn’t locate details of the camp-managing bodies. As is the case, we urge the concerned authorities at the Tinisukia district administration correct this.

The relief camp at Guijan High School. Photo: Bornil Jonak Phukan

One person from the Bandarkhati camp told us, “We were frightened by the coronavirus first, then came the flood, and this blast. The farms were our only means of survival. All our soil was charred in the fire, Maguri Beel, the Dangori River, we lost everything we were living on. Now they are saying that the government will allot money. But we lost everything. We have no documents or papers whatsoever. How are we to get any compensation?” The fear that the lack of documents might disenfranchise them of their rights is a legitimate one. This issue has not yet been addressed by the authorities.

June 14: A pandemic and a stranded populace

With the chief minister’s visit arrived a bouquet of announcements, including the prospect of a higher secondary school in the region. We came to know that those sheltered in the camps include students appearing for their school finals.

In this part of the country, a considerable number of the higher educational institutions have already scheduled their admission processes fir the months of June and July. If things continue as they are, these students will have to give up on their dreams of studying further. We would like to draw the attention of the concerned authorities at the Ministry of Education to this. Youth forums and unions of the locality may also facilitate the admission process online for the stranded students.

In Assamese, this wall says the wetland Maguribeel is Asia’s pride. Photo: Bornil Jonak Phukan

While distributing mosquito repellent as part of our outreach drive, we were intercepted by a woman concerned that those products may have harmful consequences for children. While talking about the enormous damage she suffered to her livestock and farmland, she drew our attention to issues of child healthcare: “Have you seen these kids? They have all gone pale from the night this land was on fire. How long do we need to stay in the camps like this? Our children are suffering in want of proper protection.”

In the same camp, we witnessed that a number of stranded individuals were aged 60 and above. With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across continents, children and the elderly need special medical attention as they are more prone. In the relief camp’s small faces, sanitation is not getting the attention it deserves.

June 13: What we could do on Day Two

A team of two visited families sheltered at the Baghjan High School centre, which received an influx of people from the Kordoiguri relief camp yesterday. We distributed 70 packages of supplies among around 100 stranded families; each package contained a set of essentials. We were also armed with a few miscellaneous items to be distributed as deemed necessary.

On our first day of visits, we came to know that the camps near the township have been receiving a fair share of people’s attention, but others are being ignored. Thus we chose to consider the ones receiving less relief materials. The people in the Baghjan High School camp, along with those sheltered before in Kordoiguri, had to protest with placards in order to have their basic needs met.

People at the relief camp at Guijan High School protesting to demand basic amenities. Photo: Bornil Jonak Phukan

What next?

What appears to be the need of the hour is proper rehabilitation and a reframing of livelihood possibilities for the stranded families. As far as we have seen, the concerns remain largely centred on the people of Baghjan; issues of the neighbouring settlements, of Notun Gaon or Barekuri areas for instance, have not yet come to the fore.

The imminent health hazards for those in close proximity to the site of the fire, following a prolonged exposure to a gas leakage, cannot readily be ruled out; displaced people are complaining of skin rashes and itchy eyes. One person from a nearby village panicked, telling us: “What happened right in front of our eyes was something we had never foreseen. Everything turned sinister. We fear that the very air we are breathing; the water we are accustomed to using is went contaminated. If you ask, everyone will tell you they have an irritation in the skin or an itchiness in the eyes.”

The possibility of serious health implications has not yet been addressed. Oil India Limited must be accountable for the sufferings of the Baghjan victims. The displaced are in situations worse than we imagined, and their woes may worsen if no one makes sustained efforts to rehabilitate them. It is time for everyone working for the cause from different walks of life (academics, ecologists, activists and so on) to take cognisance of the principle of “polluter pays” principle, and so must the patrons of OIL.

Bornil Jonak Phukan is with the Department of Cultural Studies and Ajitabh Hazarika with the Department of English at Tezpur University.

Whose Oil Is it in Assam – and Whose ‘Development’?

Many regional forces have fought against the privatisation of oil fields, and their struggles represent yet another point where regional aspirations could stand together with the fight against neoliberalism.

In 1867, in a newly occupied area of the colonial hinterland of British India, an important resource was accidentally discovered that would go on to animate numerous resistance movements in the years to come: oil.

Assam’s oil story is now a century old, but the implications of this resource – used globally and traded in American dollars – comes with issues that are extremely local.

The northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent has become a political frontier where an extraction economy has flourished by the destruction of local resources, tradition and economy. In independent India, the first oil field was discovered in Naharkatiya, in present-day Tinsukia district. The government expected it to yield 2.5 million tonnes of oil per year, meeting one-third of India’s demand. The government of India wanted to install a refinery where crude oil from Naharkatiya would be processed, first at Kolkata first and then at Barauni, Bihar.

But Assam boiled on the issue of wealth drain and demanded the refinery be in Assam itself. At the national level, those were the days of the Nehru-Mahalanobis model of planned economy. When Jawaharlal Nehru visited Assam on October 18, 1956, several hundreds of people demonstrated along his route, demanding the oil refinery be in Assam.

Also read: Oil India Skipped Public Hearings Before Expanding Drilling in Assam’s Baghjan

Assam Refinery Action Committee was formed under the leadership of Hareswar Goswami and Hem Barua, and the Assam assembly passed a unanimous resolution in support. Finally, the government established two refineries – one at Barauni and the other at Noonmati, Assam.

But the oil economy continued to have an overriding effect on the articulation of economic demands by various social movements in Assam, rooted in the struggle for indigenous rights. The slogans of the Assam movement (1979-85) were the tip of the nativist sentiment against a ‘drain of wealth’ from Assam, reflected in slogans like, “Tez dim tel nidiu (we shall give blood but not oil)”.

In August 1990, agitators of the Assam Movement prevented crude oil from leaving Assam and then demanded that natural resources must be processed within the state. Several insurgent groups, like the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), also accused the Centre of exploiting resources of ‘Bor Asom’ (Greater Assam, comprising some parts of the Northeast) and creating a ‘backwardness’ in the region. To justify its revolt, the front also demanded that oil and coal be primarily seen as helping improve the economic situation of the region’s people.

However, scholars like Arupjyoti Saikia see this as a form of internal colonialism that functions in the periphery. The politics of resource extraction at peripheries and regional aspiration for right over resources are located in an inherent contradiction of unitary federalism. However, the economic exploitation of the region despite increasing political dissent remains unchanged.

Oil is well!

The ongoing Baghjan inferno that has wreaked havoc in parts of eastern Assam since May 27 has prompted questions of how the politics of exploration of oil neglected the rights, resources and biodiverse rural ecology. The modern economy runs on oil. But while oil has improved travel times and communication of information, it has also created grounds for further oppression in many towns and rural areas. These areas often try hard to compete with their urban counterparts for development, including for jobs, expansion of the local economy, increased trade and better quality of life. But oil has also driven the same population towards disease, environmental devastation, poor healthcare, lack of governance and administrative opacity.

Also read: Javadekar Scuttles Bid to Extend Public Consultation on Controversial Environment Rules

Modern Indian political thought has often failed to address such huge lapses in economic policy, resulting in the further plunder of natural resources and destruction of local livelihoods. Oil is also a leading cause of militarisation in areas where establishing dominance to extract oil and other resources remains contested thanks to indigenous claims to land and resources.

The question of exploitation and economic disparity in the oil debates is located in a larger debate about how Assam has been denied an equitable distribution of profits and oil royalties from oil production. This has perpetuated a regional disparity in the course of capitalist development in India, which saw frontiers as the site of resource extraction only and ignored the demands of higher control over resources by the people, which saw resource extraction through the eyes of cost effectiveness instead of sustainability.

Such “profit before people” developmental policies on the state’s part allowed it to privatise natural resources once it adopted liberalisation policies and integrated itself into the global financial system. Between 1997 and 2012, under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy, the government has privatised 257 oil fields. The process took a break in 2012 for two years; from 2014, marginal oil field auctions allowed the open privatisation of oil fields. The open acreage licensing policy adopted in 2017 has one clause that says the companies that file tenders for auctions don’t require any past experience.

This way, the Baghjan oil field was auctioned to Gujarat-based John Energy, a company said to be a greenhorn vis-à-vis oil extraction, particularly in Assam’s topography. Privatisation is not only handing over natural resources to profit hungry corporates but also undermining the longstanding struggle of Assam’s people for rights over their resources.

Also read: Kashmir: Online Bidding for Mineral Blocks Leaves Locals at a Disadvantage

Many regional forces have fought against the privatisation of oil fields, and as such, their struggles represent yet another point where regional aspirations could stand together with the fight against neoliberalism. However, privatisation has also continued, as if unstoppable. Not only have many oil fields been privatised but the state has also normalised the outsourcing of drilling and other tasks. Even after the blowout at Baghjan, India did not put together its own expert group but sought the expertise of a Singaporean firm to quench the fire.

The catch-up to ‘development’

The roots of a modernity brought about by the ‘oil regime’ needs to be interrogated continuously. The model of development by colonial powers finished shifting cultivation forever. The post-1947 model of development demonised jhum cultivation – widely practiced in the northeast – and destroyed local food sovereignty, and never understood the importance of the rural commons.

India’s northeast is one of the greenest parts of the country but forest cover has been depleting consistently in the last 18 years. In the last decade, deforestation has doubled, according to data mapped by Global Forest Watch. Net forest loss in the northeast from 2014 to 2018 was an alarming 6,229.25 sq. km, which is nearly the total area of Sikkim, and has only been increasing in the last three years.

The very notion of development, therefore, needs to be questioned and the state needs to invest in exiting the colonial ideas of fossil fuel energy, and find alternatives to oil as a fuel.

Anshuman is a PhD research scholar at Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Mrinal Borah is an MPhil research student at Special Centre for Study of North East India. The authors can be reached at angshumansarma13@mail.com and mrinal.borah123@gmail.com.

Baghjan Oil Field Fire: NGT Slaps Interim Fine of Rs 25 Crore on OIL

The order came on a plea filed by activist Bonani Kakkar and others alleging failure of the authorities in preventing the blowout of Baghjan oil well.

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has imposed an interim penalty of Rs 25 crore on PSU major Oil India over its failure to stop fire in Assam’s Baghjan oil well that is damaging the environment.

Well number 5 at Baghjan in Tinsukia district, has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 27 days and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL’s firefighters at the site.

A bench comprising Justice S.P. Wangdi and expert member Siddhanta Das constituted a committee headed by former high court judge B.P. Katakey to look into the matter and submit a report in 30 days.

Also read: Baghjan Oil Field Fire: Assam Pollution Board Withdraws OIL Well Closure Notice

“In view of the prima facie case made out against Oil India Ltd on the extent of damage caused to the environment and biodiversity, damage to both human and wildlife, public health and, having regard to the financial worth of the Company and the extent of damage, we direct the OIL to deposit an initial amount of 25 crore with Tinsukia District Magistrate,” the bench said in its order passed on Wednesday.

The order came on a plea filed by activist Bonani Kakkar and others alleging failure of the authorities in preventing the blowout of Baghjan oil well.

The Baghjan oil field has a total of 22 producing wells – 18 crude and four gas. The oil field has been in operation since 2003.

Following the accident, the PCBA (Pollution Control Board of Assam) sent a show cause notice to the energy major on June 10 seeking details of its operations in Baghjan in the last 15 years, within one week.