OIL has done seismic data accusation of the areas in the Northern bank of Brahmaputra in Assam.
OIL has a 3000 sq. km area in Nagaland. Dr Ranjit Rath chairman and Managing Director OLI who was in Guwahati on Monday while talking to media persons said, “We already started exploration in Mizoram. Further study is going on to further explore. In Tripura we have assets and exploration is done. In the Northern bank of Brahmaputra River Pathshala and Mangaldoi are covered under Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) bidding. We have done seismic data acquisition.”
He added, “We are carrying out exploration in Arunachal Pradesh, we have planned extensive drilling and production is going on. In Nagaland till the time there was a dispute between Assam and Nagaland that was getting sorted out. There is a lot of discussion going on. We have 3000 sq km of exploration acreage in Nagaland. “
Rath said, “Once there is a climate of sorted out issues we will immediately have started exploration. We strongly believe that both the Assam shelf where we have the main producing area, and the Assam- Arakan fold belt which is in the South East of Assam shelf covering Nagaland has enough potential.”
CMs of Assam, Nagaland held talks on settlement of border dispute, agreed in-principle on exploring oil in disputed areas for economic benefit recently. Both states have in-principle decided to go in for a MoU on oil exploration in the disputed areas along the inter-state boundary so that oil can be extracted and royalties shared between the neighbouring states.
ONGC had earlier stopped E&P activities in Nagaland in 1994 after the militant outfit NSCN (IM) asked it to quit the state.Rath said, “In Manipur we are taking up baseline assessment of the areas in Nagaland border and some areas will be picked up for explorations. In Tripura we have acreages. In the North bank we will take up drilling. Rigs with over 2000 horsepower will be used”.
