ACC sees no loss in open oilfield auction

By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, July 4: Assam Chamber of Commerce (ACC) has joined the current debate on the issue of auctioning 12 oilfields of Assam and said that in order to get deep inroad into the issue, emotion has to be controlled.
Talking to newsmen in the city today, ACC’s State Chairman Rupam Goswami said: “It’s emotion that makes everything hazy. We need to control emotion if we’re to go deep into the issue. As an organization involved in commerce, we want to make deep inroad into the issue. What’s the problem when foreign companies drill in Assam oilfields the way our ONGC and OIL take such venture outside India? Neither OIL nor ONGC has the state-of-the-art technology that can make these 12 abandoned oilfields productive. If ONGC and OIL take part in the open bidding, there’s no objection. We need to put pressure on the State Government to persuade the Centre to ensure that the revenue to be generated by the private companies from these 12 oilfields is used in Assam only. We appeal to the people of the State to lay more stress on matters that will benefit the people of the State. What sounds more genuine is the demand for increase in oil royalty.”
Goswami further said: “In this context, Assam Chamber of Commerce has taken up this issue very seriously and discussed the matter with those people from Assam who are working in overseas with petroleum drilling companies and also from a few noted people from different spheres. Some of such people who the ACC talked to are senior geologist Achin Dutta working in an oil company in Middle East, geologist Agniv Dutta working  in South Africa, consultant engineer JN Khatoniar and others. After getting feedbacks from all those people, we want to raise some questions like –  
*    All these 12 oilfields were in an abandoned state for many years. Now the question arises is: why did not the previous government take any step in this regard?
*    After a thorough study it has been noted that OIL and ONGC do not have sufficient technology to acquire crude oil from these wells, so what is wrong with in auctioning these oilfields and getting revenue and local employment?
*    If OIL and ONGC can participate in different county’s oilfield auction than why MNCs from different countries cannot participate in Assam’s oilfield auction?
*    On July 15 along with Assam’s 12 oilfields, there are 67 other oilfields from different states will also put up for auction, but we have not seen any kind of protest in those states. Why?
*    Two out of four refineries in Assam is running from the crude oil which is imported from different states. What will be the situation if those states protest against the crude oil import from their states?
*    Most of the food products in Assam are imported from other States if those states stop sending supplies then what will be the situation?”
Goswami said that ACC would like to request the Assam Government that the revenue earned from these auctions should be used for the development of Assam.