Rajhmundary, March 10: Demanding compensation for the crop loss incurred by them due to movement of ONGC heavy machinery through their fields, villagers of Katrenipadu have seized a rig since February 25 causing a loss of Rs 13 lakh per day to the oil major.
The obstruction caused by the villagers to its shifting to the drilling site has hit production of crude oil. The ONGC Rajahmundry Asset has to pay Rs 1.56 crore to the rig owner. It has also been losing 175 barrels of crude oil production per day due to non-operation of the rig.
When contacted, Amalapuram RDO Lavanya Veni said the seizure of the rig was taken to the notice of the district collector. Efforts are on to get the rig freed from the seize of villagers.
Earlier, villagers of Pasarlapudi Badwa seized an ONGC rig for 70 days (from December 21, 2010). Consequently, ONGC has to pay Rs 1,64,98,000 (Rs 2.26 lakh per day) to the owner of the rig. The state government lost Rs 31,24,400 (Rs 42,800 per day) in the form of royalty and Rs 43,88,614 (Rs 60,118 per day) in the form of VAT. ONGC suffered a production loss of 51,10,000 cubic metres of gas (70,000 cubic metres per day). ONGC deplored the seizure of rigs by villagers though it is spending lakhs of rupees in its operational area on infrastructure development as part of its corporate social responsibility. It urged the East Godavari district administration to initiate immediate measures to get the rig freed from the seizure of villagers.
–Agencies