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discoveries required a price of $5-9 per mmBtu announcement comes after the launch of the
($138.3-248.94 per 1,000 cubic metres) in order Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) in mid-June, which
to break even. has demonstrated that the market is willing to
If the government does reduce prices it will pay a much higher price for gas than that set by
highlight the continuing rigidity of Indian policy the government.
when it comes to the energy sector. However, if New Delhi pushes through
Indian Minister for Petroleum and Nat- another price cut it will demonstrate the
ural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said on June government’s ability to effect dramatic
25 that the country would begin to make shifts in market changes months after
the transition towards market pricing. His they happened.™

OIL fails to shut in Baghjan well blowout

PROJECTS & STATE-RUN Oil India Ltd (OIL) has failed spokesperson Tridiv Hazariika told local
COMPANIES in a third attempt at shutting in a well fire at news outlet The Sentinel.
its Baghjan natural gas and condensate field Hazariika said the company had used 88
in Assam State. barrels of fluid to control the blowout before the
The attempt to stem the flow of burning valve ruptured and that specialists were deciding
gas from the Baghjan-5 well was suspended on upon the company’s next course of action.
August 18 after a valve in the well’s casing pipe “The focus is on controlling the well and
ruptured. the fire is just a by-product. We are now going
The developer experienced a blowout at the to remove the BoP. By evening, we should have
well on May 27 after it tried to bring a new reser- some more updates regarding our next course of
voir on stream. This led to “uncontrollable” flows action,” Hazariika added.
of gas and condensate that eventually caught OIL has been slammed by a government-or-
fire on June 9, killing two OIL firefighters and dered investigation into the blowout, which
destroying roughly 30 homes. found that the company had not only failed to
“The gas was stopped by closing of the properly plan, execute and supervise a number
Blowout Preventer [BoP] when killing fluid of critical operations but had also failed to secure
was injected and the same was released once a number of government approvals before it
again after the BoP was open when killing spudded the well almost a decade and a half ago.
operations were suspended. When again The panel also accused OIL’s drilling con-
gas started to be released and [the] well tractor, John Energy, of similarly failing to pro-
was on fire some people may have assumed vide adequate supervision of critical well site
that there was another blowout,” OIL operations.™

Week 33 20•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P5