Seismic monitoring of 2020 Baghjan oil-well blowout incident in Assam, India

Characterization of a productive oil/gas well blowout through seismological methods is relatively uncommon. In this paper, we conduct an in-depth seismic evaluation of one of the world’s most significant onshore oil well blowout incidents, which occurred in 2020 at the Baghjan oil field in Assam, no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-10, Vol.14 (1), p.24108-9, Article 24108
Main Authors: Baruah, Santanu, Niyogi, Shankho, Ghosh, Abhijit, Piccinini, Davide, Saccorotti, Gilberto, Kafka, Alan L., Roth, Danica, Yadava, Mahendra Kumar, Phukan, Manoj K., Sastry, G. Narahari, Abdelwahed, Mohamed F., Kayal, J. R., Bhattacharyya, Sausthov M., Dey, Chandan, Gogoi, Kimlina, Chetia, Timangshu, Borthakur, Prachurjya, D’Amico, Sebastiano, Dutta, Nandita, Saikia, Sowrav
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/172
704/2151
704/4111
Acoustics
Air-ground-coupled air waves (AGCA)
Baghjan oil-blowout
Blowout quake
Disaster management
Earthquakes
Emergency preparedness
Environmental science
Explosions
Gases
Humanities and Social Sciences
Investigations
multidisciplinary
Natural gas
Oil and gas fields
Oil fields
Oil wells
Oils & fats
Rayleigh waves
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Seismic activity
Temporal variations
Thermal pollution
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Summary:Characterization of a productive oil/gas well blowout through seismological methods is relatively uncommon. In this paper, we conduct an in-depth seismic evaluation of one of the world’s most significant onshore oil well blowout incidents, which occurred in 2020 at the Baghjan oil field in Assam, northeast India. We show that the blowout and related on-site activities generated distinct signals that can be distinguished by their spectral characteristics, temporal variation in geometric spreading, and sharp attenuation of daytime noise in comparison to the nighttime. A micro-earthquake potentially triggered by the blowout was also detected. Furthermore, we show how seismic data can be used to reasonably estimate blowout gas exit velocity and flame height. Our results demonstrate that a detailed characterization and spatiotemporal variation of blowout activity can be successfully captured through seismic monitoring, opening new opportunities for hazard mitigation and cost-effective disaster management for such catastrophic events.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-74428-y