Although there is no major leakage of crude oil from the wells of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in Sivasagar district, however, due to old condition of the pipeline and installation and miscreant activities, some leakage do occur which are promptly attended to and the spillage over land cleaned, said Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Jitin Prasada in a Lok Sabha reply.

The ONGC pays compensation to the affected farmers through district Pollution Cell, Sivasagar. In some cases, payment of damage compensation directly made by in-house committee of ONGC according to approved government rates. During the current financial year, an amount of Rs 7.38 lakh was paid to 140 affected farmers.

ONGC has already undertaken to revamp Lakwa-Lakhmani installations under Assam Renewal Plan Group – A at an awarded cost of Rs 2378.86 crore last March. The expected date of completion of the project is March 2013. The Group B and C for Geleki and Rudrasagar-Jorhat are under planning stage, he added.

Meanwhile, an Export Gases Sales and Purchase Agreement (EGSPA) for sale of gas from AI and A3 blocks in Myanmar has been signed by the consortium partners, including OVL and GAIL with the buyers China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). After delivery sale point, the gas would be transported by an on shore pipeline from the sales point in Myanmar-China border.

The pipeline would be owned and operated by a joint venture company, comprising OVL, GAIL, Daewoo International, Korea Gas (KOGAS), Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MoGE) and South East Asia pipeline-CNPC (SEAP-CNPC), a Chinese company.

ONGC OVL owns 8.35 per cent and GAIL has 4.18 per cent participating stakes, Prasada added.