By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS,
Guwahati : A top official of India’s leading oil exploration company, Oil India Ltd (OIL), said here Wednesday that the company has embarked on a massive plan to boost crude oil output from oil fields in India’s north eastern state of Assam.
“The present crude oil production is about 3.5 million tonnes a year compared to about 3 million tonnes a year produced by the company in the last few years. Efforts are now on to further boost production using new technologies,” newly appointed chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of OIL, Nayan Moni Borah told IANS.
The CMD said apart from operations in 11 Indian states, OIL is at present engaged in exploration work in several foreign countries.
“We have operations in Yemen, East Timor, Nigeria, Libya, and many more countries where we are carrying out exploration work for oil and natural gas,” Borah said.
The new CMD, however, is worried over intelligence reports of terror strikes on vital installations in Assam and other places.
“OIL is a major industry and forms the backbone of Assam’s economy. There are always threats and one cannot deny or rule out possibilities of forces inimical to the state’s interest to carry out attacks. We are in touch with the security agencies, besides we want the support of the locals to foil such evil designs,” Borah said.
The CMD also said the company would recruit more skilled people from the north east region.
“We shall undertake a recruitment drive and the interests of the north east would be taken care of,” Borah said.
India produces about 30 million tonnes of crude oil annually, with Assam accounting for about five million tonnes of the total – OIL producing about 3.5 million tonnes and the remaining is produced by the Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
Assam has over 1.3 billion tonnes of crude oil and 156 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves of which an estimated 58 percent of these hydrocarbon reserves are yet to be explored.
Assam occupies an important position in the history of oil industry in India and the state accounts for nearly 50 percent of the country’s on-shore crude oil production.
Assam is home to the world’s oldest operating oil refinery, the Digboi refinery, established in 1901.