Underneath seven oil belts spread across five districts of Nagaland, some 600 million metric tonnes of crude oil as well as over 20 million tonnes of hydrocarbon reserves unexploited.
In economic terms, the estimated revenue that could be earned by the state could well turn into some several thousand crore rupees in the next several decades.
The stakes are high and the issue has pitted the government and hohos versus land owners and also within various sections.
Oil exploration in Nagaland started since 1963 when the then Oil and Natural Gas Company Limited (ONGCL) was given Petroleum Exploring License (PEL) by the government of India,Oil was struck in 1973 at Changpang-Tssori belt from 21 out of the 31 oil wells drilled by the ONGCL.
Between March, 1991 and May, 1994 ONGC extracted 1.02 million metric tonnes of crude oil from the 16 oil wells besides 10,23,319.20 cubic meters of gas some of which were burned as flares and the rest for refining to be used for various purposes.
The state government asserted that the Centre cannot issue PEL under Article 371A and so halted the operations in 1994.
The state government in October 2009 constituted the Cabinet Sub Committee on petroleum and natural gas exploration with the objective of recommending a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be entered between the Government of Nagaland and oil companies who would be issued licenses.
The Assembly passed the Nagaland Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules in 2012. Seven oil bearing blocks were classified as zones under 11 districts though crude oil or gas is found only in five districts- Wokha, Mokokchung, Peren, Dimapur and Mon.
The seven oil blocks were:
Wokha: Changpang-Tssori; Baghty-Bhandari; Doyang-Lotsu.
Mokokchung: Tuli-Tsurangkong (Wamekan).
Dimapur: Chumukedima (Niuland & Tenyiephe).
Peren: Jalukie (Hmainamtsi, Athibung, Saijang).
Mon: Singphan.
Expression Of Interest
On December 18,2012, the DAN-II government had, floated an advertisement for Expression of Interest (EoI)inviting companies for their expression of interest.
The last date was January 7,2013. As per the NP&NG Rules the advertisements are to be published in newspapers having circulation in Nagaland. However, no advertisements were issued to Nagaland newspapers.
A total of 21 oil companies responded but two more were added later. The following companies responded to the advertisement.
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