Al Ngullie
Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 10
The decades’ worth of rust and controversy surrounding the question of resuming petroleum production in Nagaland took a small step forward today with the Cabinet Subcommittee on Petroleum and Natural Gas recommending resumption of the activity to the State’s government. The final decision is with the Cabinet though.
The 9-member high-level subcommittee has finalized its long-awaited ‘oil modalities’ and are now ready to be tabled before the Cabinet. The chief of the cabinet subcommittee disclosed to The Morung Express on Tuesday night a key modality in the recommendations: recommending resumption of oil exploration activities in Nagaland.
The subcommittee met Tuesday, September 10 in Kohima and deliberated and reviewed the modalities before deciding it as finalized. The recommendations will be presented before the Cabinet in a few days time, said chairman of the subcommittee HK Khulu tonight.
The chairman was queried if the subcommittee has recommended to the State resumption of oil production activities in Nagaland. After a long pause the senior government official finally said “Yeah.”
“Yes, the whole approach is that we needed to do something and definitely we need to try to resume productions,” the senior bureaucrat said. The official refused to disclose the contents of the report saying that the ‘modalities’ while being a public document has to be examined by the Cabinet first. The modality is still in the ‘stage of recommendation’ for now he said. Nonetheless, the IAS officer said that the subcommittee has made it tacit that oil production activities resume soon. The decision to whether or not resume production, however, lies with the Cabinet, he added.
According to the senior government official the views and opinions of the tribal organizations of the State haven been ‘taken into consideration.’ After due consultations, twice, their views have been examined the recommendations were worked out, he explained. Queried if the draft modalities prepared by the body are now finalized, the senior government leader responded in the affirmative.
The official also noted the concern of tribal organizations about the perception that the land resource is ‘alienated’ from the landowner and his land.
He assured that the landowner and the resources his land bears have been taken into account this time in the modalities.
This is for citizens’ note that the public-sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) stopped operations in Nagaland in May 1994 amid protest and threat from Naga organizations. The ONGC began its activity circa 1973 after being granted a Petroleum Exploration License over an area of 7.91 sq km of Champang in Wokha.
In 2008 The Morung Express broke news that ONGC was to resume oil exploration in the State although this time in partnership with a Canadian company Canoro Resources Ltd. The brief comeback was also nipped in the bud. Only controversy has resumed since then.
Till the ONGC ceased its operations, Nagaland State had earned about Rs 33.29 crore as royalty from crude oil produced in the State. The oil reserve in Nagaland is estimated at around 16 million tonnes.
