OIL's Brahmaputra exploration hit by hurdle

Guwahati, Oct 30: The Oil India Limited's (OIL) exploration plans on the river bed of the Brahmaputra could not take off as the Conservationists started a campaign against it.

A Kazakhstan geophysical firm was scheduled to start a massive 2-D seismic survey on the Brahmaputra, one of Asia's biggest and most turbulent rivers in Asom, to explore crude oil reserves.

''The survey by the Kazakhstan firm will start in November on the Brahmaputra covering an area of about 1,809 kms,'' OIL chairman-cum-managing director Mulkh Raj Pasrija said here recently.

Conservationists accused that the OIL has disregarded environmental aspects. They have approached the Pollution Control Board (PCB) in Asom for a public hearing today.

The OIL, India's premier state-owned oil exploration firm, Mr Parija said, the survey was likely to take two years at a cost of about US $ 2 million.

''The exploration is crucial for the OIL as their existing oil fields are either drying or would dry up in the next 20 years,'' he said.

''This is a proven oil rich zone and we are confident of striking crude along the Brahmaputra once exploration work,'' Mr Pasrija said. ''With discoveries of good reserves of hydro-carbon at Khagorijan, Baghjan and Chandmari oilfields, the company is hopeful of identifying enormous reserve of hydrocarbon in the river bed of the Brahmaputra. Exploration at the north bank of the river was scheduled in the beginning of winter'', Mr Pasrija said.

The 2,906-kilometre river traverses Tibet, India and Bangladesh before flowing into the Bay of Bengal. India produces about 30 million tonnes of crude oil annually, with Asom accounting for about five million tonnes.

UNI