Oil India Limited managed to cap the May 27 Baghjan gas well blowout on Monday afternoon after 83 days and two unsuccessful attempts.

“We have managed to place the blowout preventer on the well head. Capping was successfully carried out today despite the many challenges. We will go for killing of the well from tomorrow,” OIL official Tridiv Hazarika told The Telegraph. The operation in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district, about 530km east of here, involves injecting killing fluid to stop the flow of natural gas.

The well had caught fire on July 9.

“The fire you see today is because gas is still flowing. This will stop once we kill the well,” Hazarika said. The blowout had affected over 8,000 people and left two Oil India firefighters dead.