By IANS,
Agartala : Gas continued to leak Wednesday from an ONGC well in western Tripura, even as experts and engineers continued their battle to cap the well, an official said.
However, there is no immediate danger due to the outflow of natural gas though it contains 95 percent methane, said an official of state-owned exploration giant ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation).
The leakage started Tuesday night while personnel and engineers were engaged in maintenance work at the well at Konaban village in western Tripura, ONGC spokesman Anil Raja Vijan told IANS.
Senior experts and other technical personnel immediately rushed to the spot, 40 km south of here, he added.
“Experts from Mumbai, New Delhi and other places are arriving here to help the local engineers and experts to seal the well. We are expecting to shut the well by this (Wednesday) evening.”
ONGC Group General Manager (GGM) and head of the Tripura Asset K. Satyanarayana, who is the chief of ONGC crisis management wing in the northeastern state, has been personally supervising the well-shutting works.
Meanwhile, Tripura State Rifles (TSR) troopers guarded the area to prevent entry of people in and around the ONGC gas drilling areas under Bishalgarh sub-division.
“We are closely supervising the situation. At the moment, there is no need of evacuating the villagers residing near the ONGC drilling areas,” Bishalgarh sub-divisional magistrate Parshant Kumar Goel told IANS.