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173 day long disaster in India ended by Piston Well Services of Red Deer

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Burning since June 9, a well blowout at Baghjan, India had foiled all who were tasked with somehow stopping the flames.  Oil India Limited (OIL) tried regional companies and then it reached out internationally.  Now one was able to fix this well blowout until they called in Piston Well Services Inc.  The Red Deer based company was able to kill the well within days.

From the LinkedIn account of Piston Well Services Inc.

Alert Disaster Control (ALERT), with their well intervention service partner, Piston Well Services, have completed the critical well killing operation in Assam, India.

Piston Well Services mobilized a 142K Snubbing/Hydraulic Workover Unit and specialists to India to assist ALERT in the final phase of the well kill operation. Oil India Limited. officially designated the well as ‘killed’ on November 15 at 1400 hrs local time.

ALERT and Piston Well Services thank everyone that contributed and persevered through the unprecedented logistical challenges to support the operations. Oil India Limited’s commitment to the successful conclusion of the operations, will continue to support the local community and ensure the ongoing protection of the sensitive adjoining wetland areas.
#canadianenergy #albertaenergy #teampiston

News Video from RepublicWorld.com

Report from Newsfile Online
By RISHU KALANTRI
Tinsukia, Nov 15: Oil India Limited (OIL) on Sunday finally achieved success in killing the blowout well at Baghjan in Assam’s Tinsukia district, almost five and a half months after the blowout occured on May 27.
The development came two hours after the “kill fluid” was pumped into the well at a depth of 3600 metres as part of the last phase of snubbing operation.

The good news comes in the evening

OIL tweeted at 5.35 pm on Sunday: “Baghjan blowout well successfully killed: The well has been killed with brine solution & under control now. Fire has been doused completely. There is no pressure in the well now & the same will be observed for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas migration & pressure build up.”

Talking to NewsFileonline, OIL spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said the process to inject the kill fluid started around 11 am on Sunday and soon positive results were visible. “However, it will take few more hours before achieving 100 per cent success,” he said.
“Director (exploration and development ) P Chandrasekaran, director (operations) PK Goswami and resident chief executive BK Dad visited the Baghjan well site and had detailed discussions with the experts from Alert (Damage Control)  and OIL crisis management team (CMT),” said Hazarika, adding: “Further operations to abandon the well is in progress.”

The way ahead

According to an OIL source involved with the operation, the next step would be to pull out the pipes which will be followed by cementing the well. “Once it is done and tested, the snubbing unit will be uninstalled, blowout preventer (BoP) will be removed and X-mas tree will be placed before the well is abandoned.”
In August, OIL succeeded in capping the blowout well by installing BoP on the well head after two failed attempts on July 31 and August 10.
However, the kill-the-well operation failed following detection of a leakage at the casing well head and here’s when the global experts from M/s Alert Damage Control decided to move in for snubbing operation and tied up with Alberta-based Piston Well Services to move in its snubbing unit alongwith four crew members.
The 60-ton snubbing unit was flown in from Canada’s Calgary by the world’s largest cargo aircraft — Antonov An-24, to Kolkata in the third week of October and it reached the blowout well site on November 4.
On September 13, OIL succeeded in diversion of the gas after a failed attempt and used the opportunity to start partial production from a well under blowout for the first time in OIL’s history.

What is snubbing unit and the process?

A snubbing unit is a hydraulic rig that can do everything a rig can do in addition to its ability to perform under pressure in an under balanced live well state.
Snubbing operation is a type of heavy well intervention performed on oil and gas wells. It involves running the BHA on a pipe string using a hydraulic workover rig. Unlike wireline or coiled tubing, the pipe is not spooled off a drum but made up and broken up while running in and pulling out, much like conventional drill pipe.
In oil parlance, the well is killed at the bottom by inserting pipes and pumping mud through this new pipe. Killing entails injecting artificial mud into the well at very high pressure to fill up the well and stop the gas from rising to the surface.
Due to the large rigup, it is only used for the most demanding of operations when lighter intervention techniques do not offer the strength and durability. The first snubbing unit was primarily designed to work in well control situations to “snub” drill pipe and or casing into, or out of, a well bore when conventional well killing methods could not be used. Unlike conventional drilling and completions operations, snubbing can be performed with the well still under pressure (not killed). When done so, it is called hydraulic workover. It can also be performed without having to remove the Christmas tree from the wellhead.

Baghjan gas well No 5 — India’s longest well on fire 

OIL has 22 producing wells, 18 oil wells and four gas wells at Baghjan Oil Field in Tinsukia district.
The “blowout” occured at the gas well No. 5 at Baghjan oilfield, in the proximity of Maguri-Motapung Beel and Dibru Saikhowa National Park, while workover operations were under way to produce gas from new sand (oil and gas bearing reservoir) at a depth of 3,729 metres. This caused natural gas and condensate oil gush to hundreds of feet in the air and spill all around.
The well caught fire on June 9 and has been raging for 160 days before finally getting doused today.

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2025 Federal Election

MORE OF THE SAME: Mark Carney Admits He Will Not Repeal the Liberal’s Bill C-69 – The ‘No Pipelines’ Bill

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From EnergyNow.Ca

Mark Carney on Tuesday explicitly stated the Liberals will not repeal their controversial Bill C-69, legislation that prevents new pipelines being built.

Carney has been campaigning on boosting the economy and the “need to act forcefully” against President Donald Trump and his tariffs by harvesting Canada’s wealth of natural resources — until it all fell flat around him when he admitted he actually had no intention to build pipelines at all.

When a reporter asked Carney how he plans to maintain Bill C-69 while simultaneously building infrastructure in Canada, Carney replied, “we do not plan to repeal Bill C-69.”

“What we have said, formally at a First Ministers meeting, is that we will move for projects of national interest, to remove duplication in terms of environmental assessments and other approvals, and we will follow the principle of ‘one project, one approval,’ to move forward from that.”

“What’s essential is to work at this time of crisis, to come together as a nation, all levels of government, to focus on those projects that are going to make material differences to our country, to Canadian workers, to our future.”

“The federal government is looking to lead with that, by saying we will accept provincial environmental assessments, for example clean energy projects or conventional energy projects, there’s many others that could be there.”

“We will always ensure these projects move forward in partnership with First Nations.”

Tory leader Pierre Poilievre was quick to respond to Carney’s admission that he has no intention to build new pipelines. “This Liberal law blocked BILLIONS of dollars of investment in oil & gas projects, pipelines, LNG plants, mines, and so much more — all of which would create powerful paychecks for our people,” wrote Poilievre on X.

“A fourth Liberal term will block even more and keep us reliant on the US,” he wrote, urging people to vote Conservative.

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Alberta

Energy sector will fuel Alberta economy and Canada’s exports for many years to come

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From the Fraser Institute

By Jock Finlayson

By any measure, Alberta is an energy powerhouse—within Canada, but also on a global scale. In 2023, it produced 85 per cent of Canada’s oil and three-fifths of the country’s natural gas. Most of Canada’s oil reserves are in Alberta, along with a majority of natural gas reserves. Alberta is the beating heart of the Canadian energy economy. And energy, in turn, accounts for one-quarter of Canada’s international exports.

Consider some key facts about the province’s energy landscape, as noted in the Alberta Energy Regulator’s (AER) 2023 annual report. Oil and natural gas production continued to rise (on a volume basis) in 2023, on the heels of steady increases over the preceding half decade. However, the dollar value of Alberta’s oil and gas production fell in 2023, as the surging prices recorded in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine retreated. Capital spending in the province’s energy sector reached $30 billion in 2023, making it the leading driver of private-sector investment. And completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project has opened new offshore export avenues for Canada’s oil industry and should boost Alberta’s energy production and exports going forward.

In a world striving to address climate change, Alberta’s hydrocarbon-heavy energy sector faces challenges. At some point, the world may start to consume less oil and, later, less natural gas (in absolute terms). But such “peak” consumption hasn’t arrived yet, nor does it appear imminent. While the demand for certain refined petroleum products is trending down in some advanced economies, particularly in Europe, we should take a broader global perspective when assessing energy demand and supply trends.

Looking at the worldwide picture, Goldman Sachs’ 2024 global energy forecast predicts that “oil usage will increase through 2034” thanks to strong demand in emerging markets and growing production of petrochemicals that depend on oil as the principal feedstock. Global demand for natural gas (including LNG) will also continue to increase, particularly since natural gas is the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel and more of it is being traded in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Against this backdrop, there are reasons to be optimistic about the prospects for Alberta’s energy sector, particularly if the federal government dials back some of the economically destructive energy and climate policies adopted by the last government. According to the AER’s “base case” forecast, overall energy output will expand over the next 10 years. Oilsands output is projected to grow modestly; natural gas production will also rise, in part due to greater demand for Alberta’s upstream gas from LNG operators in British Columbia.

The AER’s forecast also points to a positive trajectory for capital spending across the province’s energy sector. The agency sees annual investment rising from almost $30 billion to $40 billion by 2033. Most of this takes place in the oil and gas industry, but “emerging” energy resources and projects aimed at climate mitigation are expected to represent a bigger slice of energy-related capital spending going forward.

Like many other oil and gas producing jurisdictions, Alberta must navigate the bumpy journey to a lower-carbon future. But the world is set to remain dependent on fossil fuels for decades to come. This suggests the energy sector will continue to underpin not only the Alberta economy but also Canada’s export portfolio for the foreseeable future.

Jock Finlayson

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
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