ONGC to invest Rs 13,000 cr in Assam in next 5 years: Report

OIL & Natural Gas Corp chairman Shashi Shanker said the state-run company would invest nearly Rs 13,000 crore in Assam over the next five years in exploration and production.
The investment that ONGC has planned is 30 percent more than its budget for the previous five years, said Shanker, also the company’s managing director, who was in Guwahati on Friday.
“ONGC is part of the consortium which is working to connect all the north-eastern capitals with pipeline. Around Rs  6000 6,000 crore is pumped in...
for this project,” he said.
On March 1, union minister for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated nine projects in the hydrocarbon sector in Assam. These projects are worth more than Rs 1,500 crore in total.
North-eastern states have huge reserves of gas and now extensive pipeline infrastructure is being created in the region, the minister said, adding: “The Congress had neglected Northeast India. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focused on the development of the region.”
He said: “Refining capacity of Numaligarh Refinery (in Assam) is increased from 3 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to 9 mmtpa at an estimated investment of Rs 22,594 crore.”
The union cabinet has cleared a 1,398-kilometre of crude oil pipeline from Paradip in Odisha to Numaligarh and another 6-mmtpa, 654-km product pipeline from Numaligarh to Siliguri. “From Siliguri we will send petroleum products to Bangladesh … to Myanmar, Bhutan and other Southeast Asian countries,” Pradhan said.
The union cabinet has cleared a 1,398-kilometre of crude oil pipeline from Paradip in Odisha to Numaligarh and another 6-mmtpa, 654-km product pipeline from Numaligarh to Siliguri. “From Siliguri we will send petroleum products to Bangladesh … to Myanmar, Bhutan and other Southeast Asian countries,”
Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan has dedicated to the nation three mega projects of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) in Assam. Along with two engineering projects of ONGC related to oil processing and transportation, the Minister also dedicated to nation the multi-specialty hospital at Rajabari in Sivasagar of Upper Assam. This hospital of ONGC, the company’s single largest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project, is aimed at providing quality and affordable medicare to the people of Sivasagar and Upper Assam.
The Minister dedicated the projects on March 1 along with Minister of Commerce and Industry, Transport, Parliamentary Affairs, Act East Policy Affairs, Skill, Entrepreneur & Employment, Chandra Mohan Patowary.
The ONGC Board accorded approval for the Multi-Specialty 300 Bed Hospital project, to be undertaken in three phases. The first phase of this hospital building, with 50 beds, at a cost of Rs. 99 Crore is getting ready for functioning. Competent and qualified doctors have already been recruited from the state of Assam by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Vaidyakiya Pratisthan (BAVP), the COM (Construction, Operation and Management) partner engaged towards implementing this project. Further, the recruitment process for paramedics, nurses and other support staff from Sivasagar and adjoining areas has been initiated.
In a related development, the Centre has decided to invest Rs 1259 crore to produce ethanol, renewable fuel from bamboo in Assam.
The Bongaigaon Refinery in Chirang district will implement the multi-crore bamboo-ethanol fuel project.
“Bamboo is in abundance in the North Eastern States particularly Assam. It grows everywhere. With an aim to keep up with India’s surging demand for the fuel, the Centre is looking at options to keep oil imports under check and is trying to make a 10-per cent reduction in the country’s energy imports by 2022,” an official associated with the oil industry told The Sentinel.
The official said the oil companies have been investing in biofuel refineries to boost ethanol production from non-molasses sources such as agricultural residues and municipal waste. With the government’s support, the biofuel industry in the country is set to grow into a $15 billion market by 2020, he said.
The Numaligarh Refinery is already implementing plans to produce 60 million litres of ethanol every year by using the abundant bamboo resource available in the North East to boost biofuel use for cutting down crude imports. The official said the Centre is now ready to invest Rs 1,259 crore in Bongaigaon Refinery to produce ethanol from bamboo.
Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan last week said the Centre has taken up an ambitious plan to convert Assam into an epicenter for exporting petrol, diesel and other hydrocarbon products to the South East Asian countries.
Pradhan said his ministry has asked the oil producing companies to invest their profits in creating necessary infrastructures in North Eastern States to enable the region to feed the needs of hydrocarbon products of the South East Asian nations.
An amount of Rs 9,225 crore is being invested for the 1,650 km gas grid project by the oil companies, connecting all the eight northeastern States. The ONGC will invest Rs 1,300 crore in Assam in the next five years, 30 per cent more than what the oil giant had invested in the last five years.