Skip to content Skip to navigation

Danger looms over existence of century old oil refinery


Established in 1901 Digboi oil refinery is not only India’s, but Asia’s first oil refinery, which is now losing its glory due to present marketing policy and mismanagement. According to the workers of the refinery the journey of oil industry in India began from Digboi in Assam. After long sixty years, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) came into existence in 1962, with its first refinery at Guwahati. Under the IOCL and even prior to that there was no effort by the management to increase the production capacity of this refinery. Whereas, for the survival of refinery its capacity should have been increased to 9 million MT, it came down to 0.65 million tons. In the meantime, the IOCL increased the capacity of outside refineries, but for Digboi, it maintained the plea of scarcity of crude oil and the market.


Mineral Oil Workers Union (MOWU) representing the workers of Digboi refinery have now demanded to establish a separate Assam Oil Marketing Division for the Northeastern region, with its Head Quarters at Guwahati. It has argued, when IOCL could supplying crude oil from Mumbai seashore to the Mathura refinery in Uttar Pradesh and from Haldia sea port to Barauni refinery in Bihar, why the Assam Oil Company could not get fair treatment from the government. Recently, IOCL has prepared a project report to increase the production of Numaligarh refinery from 3 million metric ton to 8 million metric ton, but it has shown its inability to increase the capacity of century old Digboi refinery on various grounds. The Union has alleged that the Centre and state governments, IOCL and AOC high officials are playing discriminatory role in respect of Digboi refinery.


It may be mentioned in this context that Assam Oil Marketing Division was brought under the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, in the year 2008 and in the name of North East Integrated State Office (NEISO), an office was opened at Guwahati. This office is controlled by Kolkata based marketing division’s Eastern Division Office. The workers of Digboi were given to understand that there would be no change in the Assam Oil Division (AOD) marketing and by cutting down the expenses the profit would be increased. This assurance did not carry any meaning and the AOD marketing has been lost, the union alleged. Losses have increased due to reduced production and Assam Oil Company (AOC) and its historic sign of Rhino have now been removed. A number of workers and officials from IOC have occupied the positions in AOD offices.


Further, due to Eastern Regional Divisional office operating from Kolkata all the functions related to appointments, contracts, printing and miscellaneous items’ purchases are done at Kolkata. As a result the people of the Northeastern region are deprived of these opportunities. Even now, Assam Oils’ LPG plant, distributional terminal, retail outlets are more than the IOCL Marketing Division. The office establishment of AOD is also better than the IOCL Marketing Division.


It is vital to remember that Assam Oil Company was nationalized in 1981 and it was recognized as a division of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), because it has its refinery, pipelines as well as marketing network. At this stage, if it loses marketing network, there would be no Assam Oil Division, workers fear. The refinery would have to depend on production of .65 million MT oil refining capacity and incurring heavy losses which would let the factory die. There would be no Digboi without Assam Oil. Besides, not a single industry came up in Digboi during last one century, except the Assam Oil refinery. Till now there is no downstream industry and day by day the number of workers in the refinery is going down. Since the year 2006 more than five hundred workers have retired from the services and at present the number of workers stands at 1700 only. The doors are closed for new appointments and very shortly the number of workers is likely to go down to 1000. Under the circumstances, the Mineral Oil Workers Union has demanded that Indian Oil Corporation should constitute a separate division for North Eastern Region with its headquarters at Guwahati to do entire marketing works. The Assam Oil Division is confident of doing successful business in the Northeastern region. The Union has also demanded that till the constitution of a new division AOD should be given the responsibility of marketing in the region.




Author info

Daya Nath Singh's picture

Journalist; Guwahati Press Club office Secretary

Add new comment

Random Stories

ULFA will always protect the rights of the indigenous people: Rajkhaowa

13 Oct 2011 - 2:21am | Ritupallab Saikia
Ulfa Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, today visited the sensitive Assam-Nagaland boundary, and interacted with local people and to get a first-hand knowledge of the situation prevailing in the border....

Soaking in bihu festivity

14 Jan 2015 - 7:30am | editor
Braving a biting chill, the entire state is soaked in Magh bihu festivity on Wednesday. Every household is busy with the last minute preparations a day before the much vaunted festival of feast.Today...

NE Games: dearth of audience worries Manishankar

1 Feb 2008 - 2:27pm | editor
Union minister for DONER, panchayat, sports and youth welfare Mani Shankar Aiyar has lamented the lack of audience in the North East Games at Sarusajai on Friday while he was visiting the sports...

Dharna for local recruitment

31 Mar 2015 - 3:37pm | SK Hasan
Once again ONGC is facing flak from a number of local organizations who have alleged a conspiracy to recruit outsiders in grade III and IV posts. Talking to Assam Times in Nazira on Monday, the...

Other Contents by Author

Gamusas and Japis are two important items in Assam, which are in much demand throughout the year in the state especially during festival seasons and social functions. These items are demanded by the people to honor the guests and honorable persons during each and every event.  However, it has been found that throughout the festival seasons the supply of locally woven gamusas are not according to demand by the customers. The reason behind it is said to be heavy cost of the locally produced items. On the other hand the weavers and traders from other parts of the country take advantage of supplying gamusas at cheaper rates and make more profit despite spending heavy cost on...
Archaeological Survey of India, Guwahati circle, has been trying to take-up the work of repairing of a broken pillar in the Mandap of Hayagriva Madhav Temple at Hajo for a long time. ASI, Guwahati has informed the media through a press note that one of the pillars of ancient temple was broken in three parts due to rusting of the iron dowels holding each other and the other developed cracks due to the same reason and widened more after the earthquake of May 2015. Hayagriva Madhav Temple is a reconstructed temple during the Koch period. The architectural parts of the earlier temple have been used for reconstruction. Different parts of the temple have been used randomly for making the pillars...
There is a generation gap between the signing of Assam Accord on the Independence Day 1985 and the present generation has to face new challenges to compete with the world class people in all spheres of development. The young people are confused over the airing of old issues which have lasted for long 31 years in absence of any solution. The issues pertaining to the Accord have become irrelevant under the present circumstances. The Assam Accord issue is still haunting and confusing the present generation due to absence of a clear picture. The fate of the Accord is not known to the people in general. A few politicians and intellectuals are trying to raise the issues of the accord from time to...
It is an established fact that a person involved in political activities cannot remain in peace till his cherished dreams are fulfilled. This can be noticed through the recent statements of former Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, who has been expressing his views frequently in media against the four months old BJP-led alliance government in the state under the chief minister ship of Sarwanand Sonowal.  He (Gogoi) dares to demand a ‘white paper’ from state government about the steps taken by it to clear the encroachments of forest and other government  lands in the state and also to let the people of the state know, what action it has taken to identify and deport the foreign...
Addressing a huge gathering of residents of Udaypur, Jonakpur and Birubari at Udaypur Kali Mandir complex on Sunday, July 3, 2016, East Guwahati Assembly Member, Siddharth Bhattacharjee, emphasized the need of implementing the vision document of development as envisaged by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at the function organized by Udaypur Yuva Sangha to felicitate him on his success in the recently concluded polls to the state Assembly, he conveyed his thanks to the people of the area for showing their confidence in him. He assured the people that he would not let their confidence go in vain. The meeting was presided over by Dr Phani Borah. Senior citizen of the locality Kartik...
Hardly a few days ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Alliance has taken the reign of Assam administration the results of efforts made by Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi to bring back black money to the state coffer, has started recently with the arrest of Dhemaji Divisional Forest Officer, Mahat Chandra Talukdar by anti-corruption department. For a long time the reports of wildlife crimes were in the air, but the previous state administration ruled by Congress Party under the three-terms  leadership of Tarun Gogoi did not try to take any action. The former Chief Minister Gogoi was under a wrong impression that the people who gave him a...
A study conducted by B Boruah Cancer Institute, Guwahati, has revealed that during a decade from 2001-02 to 2011-12, cancer cases in the north-eastern part of the country have gone up from 5,404 to 8,708. A campaign, namely, Cycle 4 ride can help control this dreaded disease. In order to raise awareness to fight cancer a lady, namely, Marcellna Sangma, is going to lead a Biker Mission to 600 kms long stretch from Guwahati to Bum La Pass, near Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh. The ride is scheduled to be flagged off by Dr Amar Chandra Kataki, Director, B Boruah Cancer Institute, on April 21, 2016.Expressing her traumatic experience with cancer, Sangma, who was a cancer patient a decade...
Being disturbed since the first phase of polling for Assam Assembly on April 4 last, the Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi is finding it difficult to remember the history of Assam agitation propelled by All Assam Students Union (AASU) since the year 1979 to the Independence Day of 1985, resulting in the Assam Accord which was signed between the Assam Government and the movement leaders in presence of erstwhile prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Heavy polling beyond 85 percent of the electorate in the second phase also made Gogoi to think over the majority of young and new voters were not the ‘beneficiaries of getting blankets, yarn and mosquito nets’. They are young, energetic, literate and...
Continuing campaigns for Assam Assembly elections have confused the Assam intellectuals to raise vital issues before the future state legislators and improve the quality of political atmosphere affecting the entire society for quite some time. Almost all political parties have started ‘derogatory’ comments against their rivals for attracting the electorates by their acts and objectives about which they are themselves ignorant. The main reason behind such interpretation is lack of knowledge about the real issues on which the political parties are campaigning. Assam as a state of multi-lingual and religious people continued to be disturbed since the year1979, when several organizations under...
Long awaited North East Graduate Congress, an initiative of Education Research Development Foundation (ERDF) is going to be held from February 26 to 28, 2016. This is the only graduate congress in India being organized by University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM) in association with RIST and supported by the State Bank of India (SBI). The venue of the congress is the USTM campus at 9th mile, Khanapara. Addressing the media persons in Guwahati on February 14, 2016, the USTM spokesperson informed that the three days congress is aimed to enhance all round development and bring out the capabilities of future graduates through various life skill processes to bring out  their...