Petroleum Minister explains why North-eastern states important for oil, gas sector

By Shailesh Yadav
Dibrugarh (Assam) [India], February 24 : Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday explained why the North-eastern Region (NER) which includes Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are important for oil and gas sector of the country.
He also explained why the Modi government is spending Rs 1.30 lakh crore in NER, under the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Pradhan said that the first oil deposits in the country were discovered near the town of Digboi and Duliajan areas of Assam and around 18 per cent of the country's oil resources are located in the northeast east region (NER).
"Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura are the areas which are full of oil and gas fields. When the Modi government came in power in 2014 we decided to create an infrastructure of the crude pipeline, gas pipeline, increase our exploration, refining and gas production capacity," he said.
Furthermore, the minister also lauded several projects worth over Rs 34,000 crores launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Assam on February 22. He said that these projects will increase regional job opportunity and revenue.
Mentioning that oil and gas plays a major role in the development of the NER, Pradhan said that 95 per cent of people have switched to LPG connectivity after India highlighted the harmful effects of burning woods to produce cooking fuel, for which India was globally hailed.
"The government also strategised on ways to make a quantum jump in domestic oil and gas production, reducing import bills, infrastructure investment and in tapping new technologies in E&P to catalyse growth in the north-east region for creating a sustainable and secure energy future," he said.
Amar Nath, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas said: "Our Minister took a review meeting on the progress of the North-Eastern vision document which was prepared in 2016."
"The few main items or pillars which were reviewed at the meeting were the supply of LPG to all households. The LPG connection was about 40 per cent in 2016 and now it has reached more than 95 per cent. Now, it has been decided that it should reach 100 per cent to all the households in the North-East," he said.
Nath said that the second issue which was discussed in the review meeting was the availability of petroleum products, petrol and CNG to all areas.
"In the meeting, it was decided that availability must be expedited and implemented, and bring whatever infrastructure is required for that. North- East has tremendous potential for production, and it contributes substantially to the growth of domestic production in the country. So it was decided that we should aim for an ambitious and quantum jump in production," he said.
He informed that it was also decided to fast track the ongoing projects before the deadline.
"It was noticed during the meeting that some of the projects require coordination, either with the state governments or with the various agencies of the central government. So it was decided that projects which will be completed in 2024, must be expedited and should be completed within 2023 itself," he said.