GUWAHATI, SEPT 22: Compelled to stop all operations in May, 1994, following massive threats by underground outfits and a State Government directive to wind up its activities in the hill State, the public-sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has once again stepped up its efforts to resume exploration and drilling in Nagaland.``Our CMD has already met Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir last month, and we are looking forward to resuming oil exploration there very soon,'' said K K Jagati, regional director of ONGC's Eastern Region Business Centre (ERBC), having headquarters at Hazira in Upper Assam.But Jagati's optimism does not look very well-founded, because the State Government is still not willing to let ONGC produce oil in Nagaland. The Nagaland Government is willing only to allow exploration of oil, and wants the ONGC to come to an agreement of paying royalty at its (State Government's) terms if at all oil is to be extracted on a commercial basis.The history of oil exploration in Nagalanddates back to 1973 when a Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) was granted to ONGC by the State Government over an area of 7.91 sq km at Champang, which was subsequently expended to about 16,500 sq kms.A total of 30 wells were sunk in the State, of which 21 were found to be having good scope for oil and two others for natural gas, and a cumulative production of 1.04 million tonnes was in fact extracted between March, 1991 and May, 1994, until the militants began striking in a big way.``We have spent Rs.109 crore in Nagaland, building roads and bridges and taking machineries there, but all these have gone to waste as the State Government asked us to stop working from May 1994 onwards,'' Jagati told The Indian Express.Interestingly, ONGC is facing a three-pronged opposition in Nagaland, the first and the most stiff one coming from the underground National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). The outfit allegedly asked the ONGC to pay Rs 2 lakh against each hired crane and Rs one lakh againsteach catering contract.These demands began in early 1993, followed by repeated attacks on ONGC installations in the State, which included snatching away of arms from security personnel, hijacking of buses, bomb explosions, looting of money and demand for payment of huge sums of money.Meanwhile, the Naga Students' Federation (NSF) too came into the picture, urging the State Government to revoke licences and permits to ONGC and drawing up ``modalities that are honourable, acceptable and beneficial to all Naga people are worked out'' for payment of royalty for oil produced.This prompted ONGC authorities to take up the matter with the State Chief Minister, as well as Chief Secretary and other top officials of the Nagaland Government, but the Nagaland Cabinet instead decided to direct ONGC to suspend extraction of oil in the State till an agreement was reached. The decision was conveyed by the State Government to ONGC in May, 1994, and all operations came to a halt from May 11 that year.The contentionof the Chief Minister is that this article grants special powers to the hill State as far as ownership and transfer of land as well as natural resources are concerned, a point which the ONGC has been contesting at its highest level in Delhi.Nagaland, over the years till the winding up of ONGC, had earned a sum of Rs 33.29 crore as royalty from crude oil produced in the State. It has an estimated oil reserve to the tune of 16.09 million tonnes.
