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OIL plans Rs 12,000-cr investment in NE

By STAFF Reporter

GUWAHATI, July 2 � Oil India Ltd (OIL) will invest Rs 12,000 crore in the North East by 2017 as the public sector energy major looks to step up exploration and development activities in the region.

�During the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17), OIL has a capex plan of over Rs 19,000 crore. Out of this, Rs 12,000 crore, which is more than 63 per cent, is for operations in the North East region,� OIL chairman and managing director SK Srivastava said here today.

He added, �In the current year (2013-14), we have a capex plan of Rs 3,581 crore out of which Rs 1,982 is earmarked for the Northeastern assets. So the major chunk of expenditure is kept for exploration and development activities in the North East.�

Srivastava said the investment would be for a number of purposes including exploration of new blocks, diversification and infrastructure upgrade among others.

The OIL CMD said a Rs 871-crore project is also on anvil to replace the pumping equipment in the Duliajan-Barauni pipeline, which started operations in 1962.

�The pipeline has given us very good and uninterrupted performance. But with time and age, the pump stations of this pipeline need to be replaced. So we have lined up a very important project to upgrade and replace the pump stations at the cost of Rs 871 crore,� he said.

Srivastava said the project is expected to be completed by the middle of 2015 and will involve replacing of all the existing pumping equipment with �the latest state-of-the-art equipment.�

OIL, which made a foray into the wind energy segment two years back, is keen to tap the wind energy potential of the North East.

�We are very keen to set up wind energy plants in the North East. So far there is no systematic survey in the North East of wind energy. So OIL is funding to assess the wind energy resource potential. Once it is assessed, we can set up wind energy plants in the NE,� he said.

The company has already operationalised two wind energy plants in Rajasthan.

Srivastava said that besides expanding overseas by means of buying stakes in oil and gas blocks, the company has also formulated a domestic growth strategy which would include a foray into LNG segment, besides picking up stakes in refineries, petrochemicals, acquisition of production facilities and so on.

�In 2013-14, our crude oil production target (overall) is 3.95 MMT which is seven per cent higher than the previous year�s performance and the gas production target is 2.74 BCM which is about four per cent higher than the previous year�s. We plan to achieve the target set by increasing exploration and development, increase in work hour operations, enhanced water injection...�, he said.

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