Student’s group threatens oil blockade in Assam

GUWAHATI - An influential students’ group in Assam has threatened a 96-hour oil blockade beginning 5 a.m. Monday to protest an alleged move by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to sell-off its oilfields to private firms.

“We shall resist any attempt by the ONGC to privatise its assets in Assam and hence the 96-hour oil blockade programme. We are committed to bringing the ONGC’s operations to a complete halt,” Tapan Gogoi, general secretary of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), told IANS.

The ONGC last week announced a Rs.24 billion investment plan for upgrading facilities and equipment to boost crude oil production in Assam.

The investment is part of the Rs.44 billion Assam Renewal Project involving comprehensive replacement and expansion of equipment and facilities, drilling of hi-tech wells and revamping of ageing drilling rigs.

Hyderabad-based Sairama Engineering Enterprises and Megha Engineering in consortium with Russian company Volgo bagged the contract for the Assam Renewal Project.

“This is nothing but a calculated move by the ONGC towards privatisation of the Assam oilfields that would risk the jobs and livelihood of hundreds of indigenous people working here,” said Promod Gogoi, former minister and president, Tel Pathar Sangram Parishad, spearheading the movement against oilfield privatisation.

The ONGC denied there was any move to sell-off assets in Assam or privatise its oilfields.

The prime objective of the Assam Renewal project is to enhance operational efficiency besides revamping of pipelines, modernization of existing equipment and installation facilities to boost production of crude at the company’s units at Lakwa, Lakhmani, Rudrasagar, Geleki and Moran in Assam’s Sibsagar district.

ONGC also projected Assam’s oil production to double in the next couple of years from the current levels of 1.2 million tonnes annually from its nearly 40 oilfields in the state.

Assam has over 1.3 billion tonnes of crude oil and 156 billion cubic metres of natural gas reserves of which about an estimated 58 percent is yet to be explored. India produces about 30 million tonnes of crude oil annually, with Assam accounting for about five million tonnes of the total. Apart from ONGC, Oil India Ltd (OIL) is the other major exploration firm operating in the northeastern state.

A senior ONGC official said only half of the over 300 oil wells the company has in Assam were functioning.

“A major chunk of investments we made in Assam would be utilised to import latest technology to revive the dry and ageing wells,” the official said.

ONGC is India’s largest company by market capitalisation with oil and gas exploration and production operations throughout India and in Russia, Vietnam and Sudan, among other countries.

But frequent strikes and protests in Assam have adversely impacted production of crude oil, besides incurring heavy financial losses for the oil giant.