Firefighters have doused a massive oil well fire that blazed for three weeks in India's resource-rich north-east, an official said Thursday. "The fire is now completely extinguished and the leaking well capped. The crisis is over," J.K. Talukdar, general manager for state-owned exploration company Oil India Ltd (OIL), said from Duliajan in Assam state.
Talukdar said fire-fighters, led by four US specialists and four experts from India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp, another state-owned exploration company, put out the fire at the Dikom oil field late Wednesday. Company officials said they might be able to resume production in a week at the field which has a total of 30 wells producing 6,000 barrels daily.
"First we need to complete the exercise of sealing the damaged well and then probably in a week's time we could resume operations," Talukdar said. All other wells at the field, 520 kilometers (325 miles) east of Assam's main city Guwahati, were shut after the fire forced the evacuation.