Jaisalmer: The crude oil leak in a farmer’s field in Barmer district was plugged Friday, five days after it began, even though Cairn Vedanta has still not identified the source or cause of the breach.To trace the leak, the company has shut all 20 oil wells connected to its Aishwarya Wellpad-8 and the site was covered with tin sheds and movement restricted as precaution.While villagers attribute the leak to an alleged blast carried out on Feb 24, company officials said an earthquake of 3.2 magnitude, recorded on the National Seismological Centre website, with the epicentre far from the oil areas and at a depth of 5 km, might have been the reason for the leak. Officials said the average drilling depth in the area is 2 km.Cairn Vedanta has over 20 oil wells at the Aishwarya Wellpad. The shutdown has affected production by about 5,000 barrels of oil, the company said, noting that one barrel equals 160 litres.Company media manager Mukesh Mathrani said, “The leakage stopped after seeping,” and that pipeline sections would now be inspected “one by one” to determine which well the leak originated from.The seepage began around noon on Feb 23. A company technical team dug a trench about 100 metres long to channel the flow into a pit, from where oil was pumped into tankers and moved to another location. The company also covered crude layers in the field with soil.
