Cairn accuses Cong MP of stalling Gujarat project

Cairn India, the firm that gave the country its largest onland oilfield, has complained to the Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy about obstructions a Congress MP was allegedly causing in Gujarat to the firm's project.

Without naming the Member of Parliament, Cairn on March 11 wrote to Reddy saying a 70-km stretch of pipeline that would take the Rajasthan crude oil to Gujarat coast has been delayed by six months due to the MP from Jamnagar.

Cairn and its 30 per cent partner state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) are delivering 125,000 barrels of oil produced from the Mangala oilfield in the Rajasthan block, to refineries of Reliance Industries and Essar Oil in Gujarat through a 590-km Barmer-Salaya (near Jamnagar) pipeline.

In Phase-II, a 70-km stretch is to be constructed to extend the line till Bhogat in Jamnagar district so that crude can be shipped from the Gujarat coast to refineres as far as Mangalore in Karnataka.

"We would like to bring to your kind notice that despite our following all the laid down procedures (for laying the pipeline), we are currently facing various obstructions created by a local politician in the Jamnagar. As a result of these obstructions the (Phase-II) project is now facing a delay of about 6 months," Cairn India wrote to Reddy.

Cairn can produce at least 1,50,000 bpd from Mangala field alone and up to 2,40,000 bpd from the Rajasthan block but the pipeline constraints are forcing it to cap the output.

The letter was written days before the Jamnagar MP Vikrambhai Arjanbhai Maadam alleged in Lok Sabha yesterday that Cairn had tried to bribe him.

A Cairn spokesperson said "allegations levelled by Madaam are completely false and are vehemently denied" adding how can anyone threatened the hon'ble MP in presence of  the district collector and SP.

Maadam had also said he had been leading farmers' protests in the area for several months as there have been "severe discrepancies" in the compensation being paid to them for giving away their land for the pipeline project.