The fire situation at Tengratila took a new turn Tuesday night with repeated explosions and heavy emission of foul smelling gas and black smoke, sparking panic among the nearby villagers.

The blaze stopped at 8:30pm on Tuesday, sources said, but stinking

gases gushing out of the relief well caused heavy breathing problem to the locals within a radius of some two kilometres.

Fearing a human disaster by the poisonous emission, the field authorities again set fire to the well three hours later. "I saw two gas field officials throwing burning cloths at

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the well head to torch it at 11:30pm," said Suman, a security guard.

He said the subsequent explosions also made large cracks at many places in the field, causing the flame to spread out.

The Niko officials ordered all the staff to get out of the field for safety before rekindling the fire, Suman recalled.

This time the blaze spread out to 10 new points, devouring the entire field.

The excessive heat burnt down five power generators and caused two oil tankers carrying around 20,000 litres of diesel to explode with booms at Tuesday midnight and yesterday morning. The tankers were parked in between the burning relief well and the main well that had suffered the first blowout in January 7.

The bursts made a crater on the ground also brought about a landslide at an adjacent hillock.

The villagers jumped out of bed hearing the booming explosions and spent another sleepless night. "I got up in the midnight and found the entire area shaking as if by a powerful earthquake," said Ahad Ali of nearby Rajnagar village. The buildings and houses in the area were also quavering.

"The fowl smell in the air made it real tough to stay in the village," Ali said.

The flame was shooting up to 80 to 100 feet yesterday afternoon, with the relief well spewing out black smoke, sand and mud. The level of emission has increased as the flame subsided since Tuesday night.

The blowout stopped on Tuesday night due to bridging off the relief well, Niko President Qasim Sharif said in a press release yesterday.

"As we had anticipated and made the necessary preparation for, the gas then came to the surface on the eastside of the relief well, causing to form two depressions, resembling ponds. The gas is flowing intermittently from the relief well and we are noticing a significant decline in the gas leakage," the release said.

Sharif claimed, "We now estimate that less than one percent of the gas in the Chhatak gas field will be burnt. The gas loss can be correctly determined using sound petroleum reservoir engineering practices once the gas field is on production."

Energy ministry adviser Mahmudur Rahman also told the press in Dhaka yesterday that the gas-loss in the second blowout would not be a lot. "I think the gasloss this time will not be as much as that of the first blowout. Because, this time the gas leakage was not widespread. It is a controlled blowout," he explained.

Referring to the public agitation backed by political parties against Niko, Rahman said, "It is not right to politicise the incident at the expense of public suffering."

The adviser claimed he is the first person to 'successfully' collect compensation from Niko and pay a part of it to the victims.

In reality, after the Magurchhara blowout, US company Occidental paid several crores of taka to the locals as compensation for their loss of property. But, Occidental did not pay for the gas-loss or environmental damage.

DRILLING RIG COMES TODAY The drilling rig of Century Resources from Moulvibazar gas field is expected to arrive at the fire-razed Tengratila gas field today to assist Niko to drill a new relief well there, the Niko release said.

Niko has been working with BAPEX to finalise the drilling programme of the relief well and making necessary arrangements to start drilling operation as soon as the rig is set up, the release said. Niko plans to start drilling on July 25. PROTESTS CONITUE

The national committee to protect oil & gas resources, electricity and port held a rally at Court Point in Sylhet City yesterday afternoon denouncing Niko and demanding compensation for all the damage wrought by the negligence of the company.

Monjurul Ahsan Khan, Dilip Barua, Haider Akbar Khan Rono,

Syed Jafar Sazzad, Nurul Islam and Moshrefa Mishu addressed the meeting chaired by Barrister Arosh Ali.

The speakers alleged Niko obtained the contract through corruption. The irresponsible and incompetent company has already burnt out gas worth hundreds of crores of taka by the blowouts in last half a year. But the government took no action against the fake company, rather allowed it to continue operation at the same location.

The Sylhet district and city units of Sylhet Bibhag Unnayan Sangram Parishad, a forum working to develop the division, announced yesterday an 11-day agitation programme from today. The programme is aimed at realising a 9-point set of demands including ouster of the foreign companies like Niko and Unocal awarded with hydro-carbon exploration contracts through what the Parishad said were unfair means.

The demands also include realisation of compensation for all the damages caused by Unocal (Occidental) at Magurchhara and Niko at Tengratila gas fields, scrapping of all the unjust contracts with the foreign explorers and a judicial enquiry. Rehabilitation of the Tengratila blowout victims and providing them with water, food and medical assistance, and declaring the area as disaster zone are also on the list of demands.

Meanwhile, Tengratila Dabi Aday Sangram Parishad yesterday suspended its agitation programme after a meeting with Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner Jafar Siddique, who assured them of taking immediate steps to correct the list of compensation recipients for the January 7 blowout.