NEW DELHI, Dec 4: Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader Birendra Prasad Baishya on Monday asked the central government if it was considering raising the crude oil royalty to the Assam government in line with international prices.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Baishya asked whether the Centre was seriously thinking of raising the crude oil royalty to Assam.
To this, Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, “As far as Assam is concerned, I am hundred per cent sure that with the effort that are made to expand capacity and produce and refine more (crude oil), more loyalty will come.”
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Puri said earnings of a state come from a variety of aspects of the “ecosystem dealing with energy”.
“Royalty is one aspect. ….When you refine more, you will get more loyalty,” he said.
Replying to another query, the Union minister said Assam got a royalty of Rs 9,291.17 crore from crude oil production and Rs 851.12 crore from natural gas between 2019-20 and 2022-23.
Apart from royalty, the state received more employment and a direct and indirect rise in economic activity, he said.
The minister said in view of the revenue and employment creation due to the energy sector, different states are now keen to enter it.
There is more potential for crude oil production including in other states of the Northeast, he added.
The central minister said that the first oil well in Asia was dug at Digboi, Assam way back in 1886. The first commercial scale oil well was produced in 1889 with 20,000 gallons per day.
“We have come a long distance from there. Today, Assam produces 4.2 million tonnes of crude oil which accounts for 14.3 per cent of the total crude oil produced in the country,” he said.
The state also produces 3.6 billion cubic metres of natural gas, accounting for 10.43 per cent of the country’s natural gas production, he said.
Oil PSUs have spent about Rs 1,600 crore on corporate social responsibility activities in Assam between 2014 and 2023, he added.
The minister said that after 2014, projects worth Rs 44,000 crore have been taken up by oil manufacturing companies (OMCs) in Assam.
Out of which, Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project is about Rs 18,968 crore, the North East Gas Grid is Rs 9,265 crore, and the Paradip Numaligarh Crude Pipeline (PNCPL) is Rs 9,058 crore, he said.
These projects have already been sanctioned and work is underway, he said. (PTI)
In Assam, OMCs have set up ethanol plants with a total production capacity of 1,150 kilo litres per day at an outlay of Rs 1,370 crore.
Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) is setting up a commercial 2G ethanol plant to be commissioned by 2024 at a cost of Rs 4,200 crore, he added.
Replying to another supplementary on crude oil prices, the minister said petrol prices in the last two years have come down by 11 per cent and diesel in smaller amounts owing to reduction in central excise twice.
Domestic crude oil production stands at 29.2 million tonnes, he added. PTI
