AAEA Seeks Accountability Over Mishaps in 'Abandoned' Oil and Gas Wells

Amid growing concerns over a recent gas leak at a crude oil well in Sivasagar, the All Assam Engineers’ Association (AAEA) has called for transparency and accountability from India’s state-run oil giants—Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL). The engineers’ body has questioned the practice of declaring oil and gas wells as "abandoned" or "dried up" without robust oversight, especially when these wells continue to pose threats to human lives, property, and the environment.

In a strongly-worded statement issued over the weekend, the Guwahati-based association urged both companies to come clean on the status of such wells and raised suspicions about possible collusion between private operators and corrupt officials within ONGC and OIL. These private entities, according to the AAEA, often operate so-called defunct wells without public accountability, increasing the risk of hazardous incidents.

The association’s concerns come in the wake of the recent gas emission from a well in Bhatiapar-Bari Chuk in Sivasagar district, which bore chilling similarities to the catastrophic Baghjan blowout of 2020 in Tinsukia. In both cases, the wells were believed to have been handed over to private contractors after being classified as unproductive—only for major accidents to follow.

“It is feared that some corrupt officials deliberately label active wells as ‘dry’ to facilitate access for private players who then extract resources for personal gain under the radar,” alleged AAEA president Er Kailash Sarma, working president Er Nava J Thakuria, and secretary Er Inamul Hye. “Is there any mechanism to track or investigate these decisions? Once a well is wrongly declared abandoned, there’s little to no monitoring of its use.”

The association has urged the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to establish a clear accountability framework to prevent such disasters in future and to ensure that any dereliction of duty—especially by public sector officials—is met with strict consequences.

They further noted with concern that India continues to lack a well-equipped national emergency response unit for oil and gas-related disasters. As seen during the Baghjan tragedy, expert teams had to be flown in from Canada and the United States to mitigate the crisis. “It is shameful that even after such high-profile disasters, the country has not built its own disaster management capability in the hydrocarbon sector,” the AAEA statement read.

The engineers’ forum also demanded a full disclosure of all ‘abandoned’ or ‘dry’ wells across the northeast and elsewhere in the country, along with a transparent record of the parties currently operating them and the basis on which these wells were classified as non-operational.

With northeast India emerging as a key hydrocarbon hub, the AAEA has stressed that the lives of local residents, ecological safety, and public accountability must take precedence over profit and privatization.

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