OIL loses Rs 50-60 crore over bandhs, road blockades

Oil India Ltd incurs an annual loss of Rs 50-60 crore in oil and gas production in Assam due to disturbances caused by bandhs and road blockades, the company's CMD Utpal Bora said on Sunday.

Last year, 2,000 tonnes of oil and gas worth Rs 45 crore was lost due to these two reasons, Bora told a press conference in Guwahati. The oil fields produce 100 kilolitres of oil per day and if the production is stopped, they cannot be restarted easily, he said. "We are committed to the development of the Northeast and we need the support of the people," he added. Over 100 tonnes of oil is also lost when miscreants close the oil wells by turning off the knobs in remote areas, steal their condensers and cut oil pipelines, he said.

"As the CISF and our own securitymen are engaged in protecting our installations where machines, offices and residential colonies are situated, we have sought security from the state government," Bora said. He said that during a meeting with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday, Sonowal had assured of deploying Assam Police battalions whenever a need arose.

"On oil production, he said, OIL produced 3.24 million metric tonnes against 3.8 mmt during 2011-12. He said that OIL had 30% of "non flowing wells" which needed intervention for 'stimulation' for sustained oil production. An OIL official involved in oil drilling said efforts were on to reduce the 30% 'non flowing' oil wells to 10% with 172 such wells 'stimulated' this year against 150 last year. The official also said that in the last 3-4 years, 40-50 new oil wells had been drilled per year with 53 new wells targeted this year.