Sonowal pitches for natural gas for fueling Assam’s growth
Chairing a meeting with the Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas K.D. Tripathi, CMD of ONGC Shashi Shankar and CMD of IoC Sanjiv Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday, Sonowal said that in the wake of widely used conventional sources of energy are depleting, natural gas has come to stay at the present day situation.
Assam being rich in reserves of natural gas, there should be symbiotic approach between the Centre and the State for optimum utilisation of this resource.
Referring to an ambitious tri-national gas pipeline project with Bangladesh and Myanmar, Sonowal said that the proposed gas pipe grid would link Sitwe in Myanmar’s Arakan to Mizoram and Tripura in Northeast India and Chittagong in Bangladesh.
The same pipeline which would extend to West Bengal on the Indian mainland and Assam and other Northeastern states on the eastern side should also extend up to Digboi, Sonowal professed.
He also asked the CMDs of ONGC and IOC to scale up their expansion plan and augment their installed capacity to reap the business potentials emanated from the Act East Policy.
He also said that pumping in more resources on the part of the ONGC and IOC in North East would help in exploring the new reserves of natural gas and hydro carbon in Assam in particular and North East in general. Sonowal emphasised that natural gas would be very critical to fuel thermal power plants in Assam.
Sonowal requested CMDs of the Oil Companies to prepare an exhaustive presentation to be made during the proposed Global Investors’ Meet in Guwahati highlighting the investment opportunities in oil and gas sector in the State as well different forays that the oil majors have made in pursuit of the expansion plan.
He also sought the oil companies’ involvement in Dibrugarh riverfront beautification project in Dibrugarh.
Science and Technology Minister Keshab Mahanta, Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia, Additional Chief Secretary Ravi Capoor, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Lohiya were also present during the meeting.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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