NAZIRA, July 25 ? ?We want to push up production of crude from 1.5 million tonnes to 2 million tonnes per annum in Assam, and we also want to jack up gas production from 1.2 MMSCMD (million metric standard cubic metres per day) to 1.4 MMSCMD? said SC Upadhyay, the Nazira-based executive director of ONGC. He said that the ONGC, which has been operational in Assam for the last 45 years, now wants to augment production and productivity by inculcating the latest that technology has to offer. The price for all this: A whopping Rs 1000 crore.
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Upadhyay allayed fears of a section of the local contractors that with the company going in for a different work culture, they might end up getting no work orders. ?All I seek from our contractors is that they have to adapt to the need of the hour and guarantee global quality work. We can no longer be complacent on shabby work quality,? he said.
Upadhyay told reporters that the ONGC installations have become antiquated and do not fit in the current context of safety and productivity. More importantly, he stressed on the need to adapt to technologies which will ensure that the company?s work go on unhindered even in adverse weather conditions. He said that Assam has too many rainy days, which affect the company?s work, and hence the need for technology which is not slowed down by weather.
Under the Rs 1000 crore plan, a thorough revamp of group gathering stations, pipeline networks, instrumentation systems and drilling rigs is on the revamping programme, ONGC is inviting Expression of Interest bids from select service providers, all of whom have global reputation of good and time bound work completion.
Senior ONGC officials took the reporters on a tour of a couple of the company?s installations around Sivasagar and Nazira. At these places, the officials pointed out to the inadequacies of modern site planning, keeping safety parameters on top of the agenda. The reporters were also shown the problem of water logging at the ONGC sites, which makes it difficult for the workers and machines to operate normally.
With 17 group gathering stations, seven early production systems, three central tank farms, five gas compressor plants, five water injection plants, twenty drilling rigs, 23 workover rigs and 1330 kms of pipelines and four effluent treatment plants, ONGC?s Assam Asset is currently a business with heavy overheads. The company?s crude oil production peaked at 3.2 million tonnes in 1989-90 to the current figure of 1.5 million tonnes for the last year.
According to BM Singh, general manager (production), the revamping process has become unavoidable, as costs have to be kept down. He said the ONGC is not chasing profits, but then cost-effectiveness has to be adhered to. The ageing group gathering stations (the oldest is 35 years old and the youngest is 18) all have to be developed to maintain efficiency, he said.
Upadhyay said that the crude oil evacuation from oilfields to the group gathering stations has to be through pipelines, as ?transporting these by tankers has turned out to be a menace.? Crude oil thefts in Assam have become rampant, and pilferage from tankers is a major contributor to the crime. He said the pilferage cannot be eliminated altogether, ?but can be contained.? The recent busting of a crude oil theft racket in Assam reveals that this clandestine activity is itself worth Rs 200 crores a year. Upadhyay said that crude oil theft is more rampant in Gujarat.
On the social obligations programme, ONGC in Assam spends Rs 1.20 crore on various society development projects, said the executive director. Apart from this, Rs 4 crore is spent on the maintenance of roads and bridges in the company?s operational areas. This amount is accounted for as ?operational expenditure?. This year, the ONGC will be spending an additional Rs 10 crore on developing three major roads in the Sivasagar district. As for the quantum of work to local civil contractors. Singh said this is valued at about Rs 365 crore a year.