Thursday, December 24, 2009

Oil blockade hits crude oil, natural gas production in Assam

Crude oil and natural gas production by India's premier oil exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has been hit in Assam following a 96-hour oil blockade by an influential students' group that entered its third day on Thursday, officials said.

"There has been an overall impact with crude oil and natural gas production hit. The agitation would also have a long term impact on the production as a number of old oil wells might cease to function and would be hard to revive if work stops suddenly for few days," ONGC spokesperson D.K. Das said.

According to estimates, ONGC is incurring a loss of Rs.200 million daily due to the strike.

"The amount cannot be really quantified, but about Rs.200 million loss daily is being estimated," the official said.

The influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU) launched a 96-hour oil blockade from 6 a.m. on Monday to protest the alleged move by ONGC to sell of its oil fields to private firms.

Student picketers during the past three days vandalized properties and vehicles belonging to the ONGC.

"There have been incidents of vehicles and other assets damaged which we have brought to the notice of the law enforcing agencies," the ONGC official said.

The entire ONGC operations in Assam are in the eastern districts of Sivasagar and Jorhat.

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, Megha Engineering, in consortium with Russian company Volgo bagged the contract for the Assam Renewal Project.

The AASU and other pressure groups allege the ONGC was planning to sell off its assets by awarding contracts to private firms.

The ONGC denied there was any move to sell-off assets in Assam or privatizing its oil fields.

"Such stories of ONGC planning to sell off assets are totally unfounded," A.K.Hazarika, director (onshore) of the ONGC, said.

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

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

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 has adversely impacted production of crude oil, besides incurring heavy financial losses for the oil giant.

Manipur outfit chairman caught

This year-end is proving to be the end of the road for the chairmen of militant outfits in the Northeast.

After the United Liberation Front of Asom's Arabinda Rajkhowa earlier this month, the Assam Police has caught the chief of Manipur-based Peoples' United Liberation Front (Azad faction) Raihanuddin. The police zeroed in on the dreaded militant and two others in the Gosala locality here Thursday afternoon.

"We had intelligence inputs about Raihanuddin having taken refuge in the city," said City Senior Superintendent of Police Pradip Saloi.

Raihanuddin, in his early 40s, were intercepted as then entered the area. Two grenades, several ATM cards and incriminating documents were found in a bag he was carrying.

Peoples' United Liberation Front was formed in 1993 following communal clashes in Thoubal district of Manipur. It espoused the cause of Pangals -Manipuri Muslims - but gradually fell into the jihadi mould. The outfit split in 2002 with Raihanuddin leading one of them.

Elsewhere in Assam, three National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants were killed in two separate encounters, one at Gossaiguri village in Baska district and the other at Missamari village in Sonitpur district. All the three belonged to the anti-talks faction of NDFB led by Bangladesh-based Ranjan Daimary.

"One militant was killed in retaliatory fire during a joint search operation at Gossaiguri village," said Baska Additional SP Rajen Singh.

TDP leader Janardhan Reddy beaten with chappals at Osmania

At Osmania University, protestors attacked Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs from Telangana, including former health minister N Janardhan Reddy. Students were upset that even though these MLAs have resigned, their party leader, Chandrababu Naidu, did not speak out in favour of Telangana.

It is perhaps fear of this kind of backlash that had Telangana MLAs of all political hues, including Andhra Sports Minister KV Reddy, handing in their papers to the Speaker of the Andhra Assembly.

Politicians in support of a Telangana state are upset with the Centre, which, on Wednesday, made it clear that the creation of a new state is on hold, given the lack of political consensus on the issue in Andhra.

Congress wins Manipur assembly by-election

Congress candidate E Suraj won the by election to Yaiskul Assembly constituency in Manipur defeating his nearest rival H Jayadev (independent) by over 900 votes for which the counting was done on Wednesday.

Election office said Suraj secured 9799 votes as against 8856 obtained by Jayadev.

The by-election, held on December 19, was necessitated due to the untimely death of Congress MLA E Kunjeshore, father of Suraj.

With Suraj's victory, the strength of the Congress has gone up to 31 in the 60-member Manipur Assembly.

The Congress-led Secular Progressive Front ministry has also become stronger. Congress (31) and CPI (three) are the constituents of the ruling SPF.