Jorhat, March 19: The Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC) has discovered oil fields in Golaghat and Sivasagar districts of Assam recently and is keen to resume operations in Nagaland, which has a vast reserve of oil and gas.
This was disclosed by A.K. Balyan, the director (human resources) of ONGC at a news conference held at the state-owned company’s Assam & Assam Arakan Basin headquarters at Cinnamara in Jorhat district today.
Balyan said production had already started at the recently discovered Kasomarigaon oil filed in Golaghat district while it would start very soon at the North Geleki area in Sivasagar district.
“Besides these two discoveries in Assam, a new gas pool has been discovered at Sundalbari in Tripura, which will contribute to the proposed Tripura power project of the ONGC,” he added.
The Assam & Assam Arakan Basin unit of ONGC looks after the company’s exploration activities in the seven states of the Northeast.
Its exploration activities in Nagaland, however, had to be stopped about 15 years ago because of “local problems” in the neighbouring state. “ONGC is keen to resume its activities in Nagaland but lack of a transparent system in that state has prevented us from doing so,” Balyan said.
The senior ONGC official, who is also in charge of the company’s business development in the region, said Nagaland had got a huge reserve of oil and gas and the company would be happy to resume its activities in that state for the greater interest of the nation.
ONGC had to pack off from Nagaland in 1994 because of threats from militant organisations, especially from the NSCN (Isak-Muivah). The company, official sources said, had invested more than Rs 100 crore in infrastructure and machineries in the state before pulling out.
Balyan said the company’s drilling performance in the Assam & Assam Arakan Basin had increased from 15 wells in 2008-09 to 24 wells by the end of February 2010 and was expected to complete 29-30 wells in the current fiscal.
“Five leads to presence of new wells have already been obtained from various fields in Assam and some more are waiting to be added following testing shortly,” he added.
He said the basin had fared well on all fronts in oil and natural gas exploration. “This year also, the basin is expecting to add up a significant quantity of hydrocarbon accumulation,” he added.
The official said the Navaratna public sector unit was supplying cooking gas to Assam towns through the Assam Gas Company Limited.
“At present, around 30,000 standard cubic metre of natural gas is being supplied per day from the fields of south Assam shelf and if the market of gas in towns like Jorhat, Uriamghat, Golaghat and Sarupathar expand, there is a potential of enhancing the rate of supply,” he said.
Regarding the ONGC’s corporate social commitments towards the region, Balyan said its Assam & Assam Arakan Basin unit had contributed extensively to the socio-economic development of the community in and around the oil field areas there. “In this fiscal alone, the A&AA Basin has contributed Rs 1.8 crore.”
Balyan said the ONGC had also drawn up a project to preserve the ancient monuments of Ahom kings.
