Increase capacity of Digboi refinery: Workers Union

The Mineral Oil Workers Union has urged the government to take immediate steps for augmenting the refining capacity of Digboi refinery in Assam, which is Asia's oldest oil refinery. The members of the union said lack of capacity augmentation has been making the refinery unviable and has also led to increase in cost of production. "Digboi refinery was set up in 1901 and is considered to the pioneer in the field of crude oil extraction in Asia. However, even after more than a century of existence its capacity is only 0.65 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA)," Mineral Oil Workers Union General Secretary Nagen Chutia told reporters.

He cited experts reports to say that a refinery should have minimum capacity of 9 MMTPA to be commercially viable. "Despite repeated request over years to the Union Oil Ministry, no steps have been taken to increase capacity. The government spent Rs 1,200 crore during last 10-15 years for modernisation of capacity but no steps were taken for capacity enhancement," Chutia said. He also claimed that while cost of production at Digboi refinery is Rs 2,000 per tonne, which is far higher than both public and private sector refineries in other parts of the country. "Together upstream oil firms like OIL and ONGC produces 4.2 MMTPA of crude in Assam, much less than the capacity of 7 MMTPA of the four oil refineries in the state.