Nagaland wants to break up 2500-sq km block
Nagaland remains firmly set against granting clearance to Oil India to begin work at the 2527-sq km OALP-3 block AA-ONHP-2018/2.
A senior source in Kohima says the state does not want any single company to hold such a large area and would prefer if the block was broken up and awarded to more companies by Nagaland itself. "We don't want OALP," he stresses.
"We would rather have it as a nomination block with higher royalty rates and carve out more than two blocks from this huge (2527-sq km) area; why should one company hold on to a single large oil-bearing area for years with a small plan, allowing no other company to operate? We could give it on a nomination basis to several companies and get a better deal for the state." Securing a PEL from the state government was high on Oil India chairman Ranjit Rath's to-do list when he met chief minister Neiphiu Rio in Kohima on October 8 (2024).
Rath was accompanied by ONGC director exploration Sushma Rawat, Vedanta's chief policy and regulatory officer Rakesh Agiwal, and oil ministry additional secretary Praveen Khanooja, who chairs a high-level panel pushing for a revival of E&P in the state. Oil India has access to seismic for 150-sq km 3D and 150-lkm 2D shot at the AA-ONHP-2018/2 block, the single largest block in the largely unexplored Naga Schuppen Belt.
From 1980 to 1994, ONGC drilled 31 wells in the Changpang-Tssori block in the Naga Schuppen Belt, of which 21 wells produced high-quality crude oil, according to Nagaland legislative assembly records. Nagaland hopes the oil ministry will see things its way and provide incentives for reviving exploration in the Naga Schuppen Belt.
"(Oil minister) Hardeep Puri has said exploration in Nagaland should be a win-win for all," adds another Nagaland source. Vedanta is facing similar challenges securing clearances for its 839-sq km Assam block AA-ONHP-2017/4, part of which lies in Nagaland.
"We are not going to give clearance that easily to the Vedanta block because half a dozen Naga villages are affected," adds our source.