On his official tour to New Delhi, Chief Minister of Nagaland Shri Neiphiu Rio and Cabinet Minister Shri Neiba Kronu has called on Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Urban Affairs & Housing; Petroleum & Natural Gas.
In a tweet, Shri CM Rio stated, “We had a very positive discussion on Petroleum E&P, and other development issues”.
Called on Shri @HardeepSPuri, Hon’ble Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and Petroleum and Natural Gas, along with my colleague Shri @neibakronu. We had a very positive discussion on resuming petroleum E&P activities in Nagaland, and other developmental
issues. pic.twitter.com/84qidKM3uI— Neiphiu Rio (@Neiphiu_Rio) September 9, 2022
Nagaland is estimated to have more than 500 million tonnes of petroleum & natural gas reserves along the Nagaland-Assam border.
Public sector unit ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation) had earlier started oil extraction in Changpang area of Bhandari assembly constituency under Wokha district. However due to various reasons, notably royalty sharing, ONGC left at around 1994. Since then, oil extraction has not restarted in Nagaland.
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri had earlier chaired an event organised in September 2021 on ‘Upstream Oil & Gas opportunities in North East Region (NER)’ attended by ministers from Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. He had said the NER is of strategic importance for India and that India plans to Double the Oil and Gas production from current 9 MMTOE to 18 MMTOE by 2025.
