OIL loses Rs 200 cr in Assam

Company's crude oil production dipped to 3.701 mn tonnes last fiscal on the backdrop of hostile working environment

Oil India Ltd today said it has incurred a loss of around Rs 200 crore in 2012-13 due to hostile working environment in Assam like bandhs, threat to staff and obstruction for not meeting local bodies' demands.

"We have had 290 instances of bandhs, threatenings, blockades and other hostile activities in last fiscal in three districts of Assam -- Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Sivasagar. This has led to a total loss of around Rs 200 crore," Oil India Ltd (OIL) Chairman and MD Sunil Kumar Srivastava told reporters here.

Against the backdrop of such environment, OIL's crude oil production dipped to 3.701 million tonnes last fiscal from 3.884 million tonnes in 2011-12, he added.

"We had set a target to explore 3.95 million tonnes in the last fiscal, but we could not. Now this figure is this year's target," Srivastava said.

OIL had clocked a gross income of Rs 11,456.32 crore in 2012-13, while its net profit stood at Rs 3,589.34 crore.

When asked about the obstructions, OIL resident chief executive K K Nath said the company faced troubles from both organised and unorganised entities.