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Law and order problems unsettle ONGC in Assam, Nagaland

Blackmailing, extortion and police excesses have pushed the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation into deep trouble in Assam and Nagaland.

Top ONGC officials told a group of visiting journalists recently that their operations were becoming increasingly difficult as practically everyone in the state was demanding either money or favour from ONGC.

ONGC Eastern Regional Business Centre director K K Jagati said even a small group would hold them to ransom with various demands, causing immense hardship and financial damage.

''Often a few local villagers put up barricades demanding either construction of roads or money leading to suspension of drilling in crucial hours and panic among the ONGC employees,'' he said.

Indicating that some of his additional workers were in league with these groups, he said coercion has become a part of ONGC's operations in the two states.

ONGC operations had been badly affected by such local problems in its Panidhiang oilfield . It had commenced exploratory drilling in January. A couple of exploratory wells had proved the existence of hydrocarbons in this region.

The problem started when the local villagers demanded construction of a road first before the drilling could commence. According to top ONGC officials, this had severely hampered the drilling operations which had reached a critical stage.

''Such incidents are common here in Sibsagar district,'' said Jagati who had been handling most of these problems. Panidhiang was a typical example of the kind of problem ONGC faced.

There were also many cases of fake claims of oil spillage when actually villagers in connivance with the state government and ONGC officials pilfered oil. ''Fortunately, we could break that nexus and for quite sometime now the false claims are very low,'' Jagati said, adding that some ONGC officials were nearly arrested recently on a complaint by filed by Sibbari Tea Estate authorities.

''However, our biggest problem in Assam is the non-availability of contractors. The locals do not allow the contractors to be brought from outside and they do not have the requisite technical expertise to even touch the highly skilled works. This poses a major problem. We always want to give the work to the locals, but how do you expect to allow them to work in critical areas?'' Jagati said.

''Now we have to install five gas compressors each in oil fields which would have boosted our production of natural gas by 15 to 20 per cent. But that is not happening since the local contractors want the work though they cannot bring the requisite skill,'' he added.

What made matters worse, alleged Jagati, was that the policemen themselves were a problem. ''They simply treat ONGC vehicles as their own. There have been several instances of the police stopping an ONGC vehicle, forcing the passengers out and driving away. The vehicles are returned in a week or so,'' he said adding, ''even vehicles carrying ice-slabs for preserving the body of an ONGC officer was stopped and requisitioned by the police after discarding the ice-slabs.''

Besides, there are numerous organisations and non-government organisations which pester the ONGC for financial help. ''there are some genuine ones also but in most cases the organisations are dubious,'' said N N Taye, ONGC general manager (public relations).

Jagati said that because of the disturbances and the floods, the region would not be able to achieve its targeted production. For this year which had been fixed at 2.1 million tonnes.

Even a production of 2.5 MT would not be enough for the region to make profits. The break-even production has been estimated at 2.9 mt. In 1997-98, the production was 2.4 mt and the eastern region made a deficit of Rs 1.79 billion.

Higher operational expenses are also a reason for sustained losses. ''We spend Rs 90 million every year on security alone,'' Jagati said. Frequent stoppage of work by extortionists also affect production significantly. Many of the oil wells in Assam are old. ''If production is stopped for one day, it takes seven more days to reach that level again,'' he added.

UNI