Oil India Limited set to start exploration along Assam-Nagaland border, says CMD

Chairman and Managing Director of Oil India Limited (OIL) Dr Ranjit Rath said that the oil PSU is expecting an agreement between the two State governments Assam and Nagaland soon to start the exploration work, write ETV Bharat's Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi: Stating that the Assam-Nagaland border has a huge potential for crude oil exploration, Chairman and Managing Director of Oil India Limited (OIL) Dr Ranjit Rath said that the oil PSU is expecting an agreement between the two State governments soon to start the exploration work.

“Discussion happened between Assam and Nagaland governments following the intervention of the Central government. The border areas of the two States have huge potential for oil exploration. An early agreement will enable OIL to pursue its exploration work,” Rath told ETV Bharat in New Delhi. There is enough potential waiting to be discovered there, he added.

The statement given by Rath assumes significance as the Naga rebel outfit-National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) has already opposed such joint explorations along the Assam-Nagaland border until the decades-long Indo-Naga political imbroglio gets resolved. Significantly, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Nagaland counterpart Neiphiu Rio in the recent past said that both States will ink a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for oil exploration along the bordering areas.

Emphasising the oil potential in Assam, Rath said that aggressive exploration of the company has led to a new hydrocarbon discovery during the year in the Sesabil area in the Assam basin. “Although we are at the initial stage in the Sesabil basin, it’s a huge asset for us,” said Rath. Meanwhile, the oil giant has registered the highest ever net profit in the financial year 2022-23 ever since its inception at Rs 6,810.40 crore, a surge of 77.20 per cent year over year (YoY) on the back of higher operating income and growth in oil and gas production.

The company has also incurred zero loss in the 2022-23 financial year due to the improved law and order scenario of the State. “Yes, the improved law and order situation helped us in registering zero loss and we have expanded our oil exploration work,” said Pankaj Kumar Goswami, director (operation) in OIL to this correspondent.

He informed that the Baghjan incident in 2020 incurred a huge loss to the company. On May 27, 2020, Oil India Limited, was drilling a well at Baghjan, which led to a massive blowout. Following the incident at Baghjan, the OIL has also implemented a new SOP and guidelines at the oil exploration site to avert such kind of incidents in the future. "Besides the creation of an emergency response team, we have also augmented our equipment to tackle a Baghjan-like situation,” said OIL CMD.

Referring to the Paradip Numaligarh Crude Pipeline (PNCPL) project, Rath said that the work is going on in full swing and is expected to be completed by December 2024. The 1,630 kilometres long pipeline is proposed to run from Paradip Port and cross through Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bihar, and terminate at the Numaligarh refinery in Assam. The pipeline is an integral part of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL)’s integrated refinery expansion project and aims to expand the refinery’s capacity from 3 to 9 million tonnes per annum for Rs 28,000 crores.