Man and machine engaged in the final fire-fighting operation. Picture by Ripunjoy Das

Dikom (Dibrugarh), Oct. 5: Oil India Ltd (OIL) tonight said the inferno at Dikom was ?doused completely? and ?well number 15 is totally under control?, capping 20 days of intense drama and action since the well caught fire on September 15.

Utpal Bora, OIL general manager (production), who was heading the fire-fighting team, said the fire was finally put out around 7.30 pm.

Last week, the well had caught fire once again after the blaze was put out.

After the earlier failures to douse the flames, experts engaged in the work had considered a change in methodology to finally ?kill the well?.

The fire continued to blaze till this evening but the experts did not give up and OIL officials had expressed the hope that it might be put out by tonight.

The fire-fighters were relying on the stringer and pumping operation and the other option was the critical jet-cutting operation for which all equipment had also been kept on standby.

?At present we have been able to control the flames to a large extent, but we will have to kill the well, which is taking more time. A final decision in a change of methodology would be taken after a review meeting this evening,? OIL spokesman Phanindra Kumar Deva Choudhury said earlier when contacted over phone.

Today?s operation began at 8.40 in the morning and continued throughout the day.

After pumping 210 barrels of water at a pressure of 4.5 barrels per minute, the fire-fighters were once again able to control the flow of oil and gas from the mouth of the well. However, the flow from the annulus continued.

?Thereafter, the operation continued in three phases for six hours without any break, during which water, polymer and loss circulation materials (LCM) were pumped with the help of three pumps. But despite all these efforts, the fire had continued to blaze, forcing the experts to contemplate use of the jet-cutting operation,? Choudhury had said.

Jet-cutters had been procured from ONGC bases from all over the country.

OIL chairman-cum-managing director Ranjeet Kumar Dutta today visited the fire site for the second time after the blowout and discussed the matter with the experts at the site.

The fire-fighting operations were suspended yesterday after the earlier combination of chemical, which was to be pumped in, did not bear the desired fruit.

The experts then decided to use a composition of water with other chemicals.