Dimapur, May 16 (IANS): The NSCN (K) Tuesday denied demanding Rs.300 million as extortion from a premier oil exploration firm. The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) last week informed the centre that it had received a signed extortion notice purportedly from the S.S. Khaplang faction of the NSCN.
ONGC officials said they were asked to “quit” Nagaland if they failed to pay the extortion money within 15 days -- the deadline expires May 23.
“This is absolutely false and we have not sent any extortion notice to ONGC,” Khugalu Mulatonu, the self-styled finance minister of NSCN-K, told IANS over the phone.
The ONGC is engaged in drilling works at five crude oil well sites in Nagaland’s Mon district. “We believe the extortion notice was served to ONGC by our rivals (Isak-Muivah faction of NSCN) just to defame us. The demand note is definitely a forged one,” Mulatonu said. “The area where the ONGC is operating is under our control and so there is no need to worry.”
The ONGC was earlier forced to shut down exploration works in Nagaland after tribal guerrillas in the state demanded money. The ONGC recently resumed work in Nagaland after a long gap. This is the second time in quick succession that the ONGC has come under rebel threat.
In January, the ONGC regional headquarters at Nazira in eastern Assam received a Rs.5 billion extortion demand from the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
The extortion demand by the ULFA was followed by a string of powerful crude oil pipeline blasts in the run-up to Republic Day celebrations. ONGC produces about 1.6 million tonnes of crude oil annually in Assam.
The ONGC had recently decided to invest a whopping Rs.33 billion this year to nearly double its annual production of crude oil in Assam by drilling new wells and associated pipelines, besides revamping existing facilities.
India produces about 30 million tonnes of crude oil annually, with Assam accounting for about five million tonnes of the total. Oil India Ltd produces about 3.5 million tonnes of crude in Assam annually.
Assam has over 1.3 billion tonnes of proven crude oil and 156 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves of which about an estimated 58 percent hydrocarbon reserves are yet to be explored.
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