The appeal, ad verbatim, reads: “The ongoing agitation in the state has severely impacted day-to-day operations of Oil India Limited. Besides loss of production of crude oil and natural gas, the stoppage of OIL's operations has badly hit production of LPG and supply of crude oil to refineries and consumers of natural gas like BVFCL, BCPL, NEEPCO, AGCL and APL among others. This will have an adverse impact on the power situation in the state as well as lead to shortage of essential items like LPG, which will impact the common people the most.

In the greater interest of the people of the state and the local economy, Oil India Limited makes an ardent appeal to the people of Assam to allow OIL to carry on with the day-to-day operations so that the company can ensure uninterrupted supply of crude oil, LPG and natural gas to the various industries based in Assam and ensure that these industries in turn help the common people to have uninterrupted supply of essential amenities like LPG, electricity, petrol, diesel, kerosene and fertilisers.

Oil India Limited appreciates the present situation and the sentiments of the people. However the total disruption of OIL’s operational activities will adversely impact the economy of the state and the lives of the common people. Therefore, in the interest of people of the state and keeping in perspective the availability of such essential amenities, OIL appeals to all concerned to allow OIL to carry on with the company’s day to day operations.”

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had been forced to shut down its Digboi refinery in Assam and is operating its Guwahati unit at minimal capacity, while OIL has been forced to shut LPG production and its crude oil production has dropped by 15-20 per cent, source said, and added, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has seen up to 25 per cent drop in production.

The source added, “Indian Oil has refineries in Guwahati, Digboi, and Bongaigaon in Assam. Production in these refineries is ‘down’ because Indian Oil is unable to produce more due to stoppage of tanker movements. Our storage tanks are full. Where will we store the products, unless tanker movement happens.”

The four refineries in Assam put together processed around 7 MT crude oil in the last financial year.

“Our fields were shut for four days in a row. This has led to a cumulative loss of 5,000 kilo litres in terms of oil output, which has an economic impact of Rs 8-10 crore alone. The company is suffering losses on account of drilling equipment that has been hired but not used. Since it has old fields, a halt in production will affect reaching production optimisation once operations restart,” the source added.

A highly placed official in Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd (BCPL) told this correspondent that, the gas supplies from OIL to BCPL facilities were snapped due to massive protest against CAB, leading to shutting down of Assam gas cracker project.

“The entire upstream and downstream units of BCPL we’re compelled to shut down due to non-availability of Feed Gas on December 12 onwards and could resume operations on December 17 onwards, that too, with one third of supplies. BCPL requirement is 6 MMSCMD gas every day from OIL as well as 1MMSCMD from ONGC and gradually rich gas supplies has increased to 5 MMSCMD from OIL and approx 0.4 MMSCMD from ONGC, which means we are still running facilities below our maximum output. After extraction of C2+ from rich gas and the remaining lean gas is being send back to Oil India which further sends it to industries like NEEPCO, BVFCL, APL, NRL, Assam Gas Company among others,” the official added.

“We are the engine for our facilities at Lepetkata in Dibrugarh district. Our closure means the cracking facility at Lepetkata would also close down,” the official said, adding: “The loss is in crores without any doubt.”

The other PSUs -- like NEEPCO, NRL, etc -- government companies and private industries, mostly having their facilities in upper Assam, have similar stories to share.

Tea industry too have similar stories and losses

In Tinsukia, the small tea growers had to face a loss of Rs 2.5 crore in 10 days of protest, unrest and violence. Speaking with EastMojo, general secretary of All Assam Tea Growers’ Association, Majid Moran, said, “Our annual production of green leaf is around 49 lakh crore in a year of nine months of plucking. There was a loss of 20 lakh green leaf production during December 9 to 19 amounting to a loss of around Rs 2.5 crore.” However, barring Tinsukia district, there was no loss to small tea growers in other districts of Assam.

The Assam Chamber of Commerce said all the major wholesale markets supplying to the entire Northeast were closed for over four days. “On a daily basis, each of these major eight markets is suffering a loss of Rs 8-10 crore, a source in Assam Chamber of Commerce, said.