Nagaland sits on top of crude oil reserves estimated at around 600 million tonnes mainly in Wokha, Mokokchung,Mon, Peren, Dimapur districts. Besides crude oil, Nagaland also has abundance of gas and coal reserves. These certainly are a boon which should have transformed Nagaland. All other north eastern states barring Assam, do not possess such huge reserves of oil, gas and coal. The issue of oil exploration and exploitation has been dogged with the illogical stand taken vis-à-vis Article 371 A in the state while the Naga political issue has decreed these as being under sovereign rights and therefore, non-negotiable. It may be recalled that in 1973, the then NNO government in Nagaland permitted the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to conduct survey and investigation of crude oil and allowing a limited quantity to be extracted for the purpose. In between 1981 to 1994 the state government was given oil royalty of only Rs. 33.3 crores whereas ONGC owed five times the amount since it had extracted a huge amount under the pretext of trial basis. However, in 1994 NSF and other organisations forcibly stopped ONGC from carrying out its oil activities in Nagaland and mainly the ones at Changpang and Tssori under Wokha district from where it has been extracting crude oil. ONGC was made to stop extraction on account of these being considered as Naga national assets. Sadly, the infrastructure and seamless pipes which were created by the ONGC were destroyed and stolen on the ground that oil and its resources would be utilized after getting sovereignty and to enforce Article 371 (A). Villagers from Wokha district recalled how dozens of huge tankers transported oil daily from Nagaland to nearby oil pumping station at Jorhat to be moved to oil refineries either in Digboi or Numaligarh etc. Recently, Lok Sabha MP Tokheho has raised the issue of oil revenues which Nagaland is losing due to the unresolved issue of oil exploration and exploitation. Tokheho had cited figures to show how much Assam is earning as revenue from oil. He claimed that Assam collected Rs. 17,995.83 crores in the last ten years from 2011-2021. On the other hand, he said Nagaland is losing approximately Rs. 5 Crores daily or Rs. 1825 crores annually as oil revenue. Such a huge amount as revenue would have surely made Nagaland not only economically much better placed but also impacted the entire socio-economic scenario. Whilst Nagaland had stopped extraction of oil owing to various reasons, the ONGC has continued drilling in Assam and has already completed 39 oil fields of which 27 are operational. Geleki, Khoraghat, Nambor, Kasomarigaon, Suphyam, Dayalpur, Barholla and Mekrang oil fields are along the Assam-Nagaland border. Nagaland has been claiming these areas based on traditional ownership and historical accounts but royalty for these are being collected by Assam. Tokheho has also pointed out that Assam not only collects oil revenues from wells along disputed areas claimed by Nagaland but also Changlang and Khasam claimed by Arunachal Pradesh and Churamchanpur which is also claimed by Manipur. Nagaland’s attempt to extract oil the Nagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas (NPNG) Regulations and the NPNG Rules (both in 2012) under the powers of Article 371A was aborted after the Centre said parliament and not state legislatures had the constitutional powers to frame such rules under List-1 of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution of India, including Energy 53. Quite rightly, the MP said while the world is switching to renewable and clean energy from fossil fuel(oil), time and tide will not wait for Nagas.