DIBRUGARH, Feb 25— The Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has sought to put the ball in the court of ONGC while blaming the latter for the delay in the setting up of Assam Gas Cracker Project even as the State Government has issued a deadline to the parties concerned over the issue. “Please do not blame us. The moment we get the gas commitments from ONGC, we are ready to go ahead with the Assam Gas Cracker project,” said a senior Reliance official Monday, when contacted by The Assam Tribune. Mentionably, ONGC is yet to give a firm commitment for the steady supply of 1.75 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) of natural gas and this is delaying the gas cracker project.
Earlier, Oil India Limited (OIL) had signed the gas supply agreement last October, committing 3.25 MMTPA of natural gas, the project itself has been toned down from a capacity of 3 lakh tonnes per annum to 2 lakh tonnes per annum. The Reliance official further said Assam is suffering from an acute shortage of crude and gas output to sustain even the existing industries. The State’s four refineries at Digboi, Numaligarh, Noonmati and Bongaigaon have a combined refining capacity of seven million tonnes per annum. With the Barauni refinery capacity being jacked up to 9 million tonnes, crude for that refinery is being imported from abroad. A substantial crude requirement at Bongaigaon too is being imported. The crude oil shortage in Assam has forced the Numaligarh refinery to work below capacity, while gas shortages have truncated the performance of the LPG bottling plant of GAIL at Lakwa as well as ASEB’s power station at Lakwa.
ONGC sources at Nazira maintained that it is dithering on the gas supply agreement with the Reliance Assam Petrochemicals Limited, as the Corporation’s oilfields in upper Assam and Nagaland are “just not producing the required quantities, though there is geo-scientific evidence of the requisite reserves.” The Reliance official, pointed out that ideally, a gas cracker project should have a minimum capacity of 5 lakh tonnes per annum, “so that there is a reward to the investments made.” He however, hastened to add that the Reliance management, including the Ambanis themselves, are committed to implementing the project in Assam, “though it may turn out that the project in Assam may just end up scratching just the 2 lakh tonnes figure.”
Meanwhile, the Dibrugarh district administration has been able to overcome the hurdles faced in acquiring the 3000 bighas of land for the project at Lepetkatta near here. Work is currently on to notify the land acquisition in the official gazette. However, families who face the prospect of being shifted, in the process are still not satisfied. Civil administration officials here are confident that the affected families would “move out on their own” after they receive the compensation amounts. Stating that Reliance has not received a paisa of the Rs 377 crore subsidy, the Reliance official clarified that the amount would be released by the Centre in set phases, and only after the actual project work gets under way.