The Assam Tribune
New Delhi | October 18
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) may have ambitious plans for the North Eastern Region, but the State Pollution Department’s ultimatum to clean up the oil fields in Nagaland has left the Oil giant in a tizzy. Top official of ONGC said that the Company has been served with a notice by the State Pollution Control Board to clean up the sludge and muck around the drilling sites in the State. The sludge was left over of what remained of the drilling site after Naga militants blew it up.
The official said they are still willing to mount a clean up operation which is spread over a wide area, provided the militants allowed them to do so. The agreement signed with the N. Rio Government has not eased the situation and operations continue to be in the limbo in Nagaland.
Officials said a Canadian Company Canaro Resources Limited had been hired but they too have failed to convince the militants. However, he conceded that the Canadian Company has been somewhat successful. Recently, the NSCN-K had warned the Canadian Company against conducting any operations in the State. Canoro was hired by ONGC to resume exploration work jointly in Nagaland.
The two companies had signed a Joint Study Agreement (JSA) for exploration, development and production activities in six blocks in Nagaland.The official said Changpang block was high-yielding oil field before the Naga militants stopped all operations in 1994. The entire area is floating in oil. After ONGC suspended its operations in the State, it was forced to sell its drilling equipments as scrap.
ONGC had already paid a royalty of Rs 33.83 crore against crude extracted from the Changpang field in Nagaland. In addition, as a goodwill gesture, the company had agreed to pay a one-time goodwill grant of Rs 67 lakh to Nagaland.
It was last week that Union Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora had told a Parliamentary Panel that the ONGC has chalked out an Assam Renewal Project with an investment outlay of Rs 4,000 crore. ONGC plans to invest Rs 2500 crore in total revamping of old installations and pipeline net work to reduce the surface bottleneck and improve production.
There is a plan to invest Rs 1500 crore to drill hi-tech wells and optimisation of artificial lift. ONGC has engaged internationally reputed Halliburton for production optimisation, reservoir management and to enhance oil production in major oil fields of Assam Assets, the Minister had said.
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