HT Correspondent

SIVASAGAR, Aug 22: In a new turn of events, the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) came out strongly, opposing the move of the Union to merge the Assam Asset of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) with Oil India Ltd (OIL), Duliajan.
The merger was declared by the Union minister of state for Petroleum & Natural Gas Rameswar Teli in Dibrugarh recently after Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi to discuss this particular issue.
In a release to the press, INTUC Assam unit’s president and secretary Hiranya Bora and Purnakanta Buragohain said that the merger can never be accepted as the OIL is a small player in the hydrocarbon sector in comparison to ONGC.
OIL, drilling at a depth of 1500 /2000 meter depth makes a profit of Rs 1,500 cr per year whereas ONGC made a profit of around Rs 12,000 cr during the same period despite drilling down to a range of about 4 to 5 thousand meter depth in an aging field. The release also said that the ONGC production plummeted during the Assam Agitation period following which ONGC introduced a three-year transfer policy and some other irrational administrative policies for which the Assam Asset became a loss-making unit.
INTUC also alleged that OIL has for a long time not appointed a full-time executive director who has proper geo-tectonic knowledge on the region.
Further, the leaders allege that there is a circle that had been trying to privatise the Maharatna PSU since about a decade back and this merger proposal might be a part of the bigger plan for which the Maharatna PSU has downsized its manpower.
The union said in the release that thousands of local entrepreneurs, businessmen and contractors under Assam Asset will face a bleak future if the Asset is merged with OIL.
Moreover, ONGC has been contributing in a big way to the socio-economic development of the Sivasagar district and ASTC has been earning a huge amount from ONGC for providing bus transportation which will be jeopardised once the merger gets going.
Notably, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider transferring all assets of the ONGC in the northeast to the OIL because of the latter’s roots in the region.
The chief minister wrote to the Prime Minister on June 5. A copy of the letter was made available on June 23.
Assam and Assam-Arakan Basin in the northeast are the most prolific sedimentary basins in India. Both the public sector OIL and ONGC are the major operators in the region.
“It has been felt that the operations in the entire north-eastern region may be carried out by one major operator, preferably OIL” as it was born in Assam and had commendable interaction with the local populace, Sarma wrote.
One of the reasons he cited was that the Assam and Assam-Arakan basin together had an estimated hydrocarbon deposit of 7,634 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent and hold 5,588 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent of yet-to-find resource potential, which was next only to the Krishna-Godavari Basin.
“With the emphasis of the Government of India on intensive exploration and development of Indian sedimentary basins, a single major operator can carry out exploration and production operations in a seamlessly integrated manner with proper deployment of resources,” Sarma said.
The northeast, he pointed out, accounted for 25% of oil and 44% of gas produced onshore in India (2019-20). With more focused attention, an integrated company could aspire to increase the production from 4.15 million metric tonnes to around 6 MMT of oil and from the current 4.56 billion cubic metres of gas to around 7 BCM by 2024-25.
“OIL is a company rooted in the north-eastern region and understands the nuances of the region. With more than 90% of employees from the region, the company would be able to focus with undivided attention on the operations and, at the same time, be sensitive to the aspirations of the local people,” the chief minister said.
As both were national oil companies and as the acreages were awarded under the nominated regime, there would be no issues in transferring ONGC’s assets to OIL. This would truly reflect on the Act East Policy, he added.