Oil India Ltd (OIL) today stood by the announcement of Rs 200-crore loss in Assam last fiscal due to a ‘hostile work environment ’, but clarified that it was not targeted at ‘public organisations’ and expressed regret if it had.

“While factual data on the number of bandhs and blockades and the consequent loss to OIL was shared with the media, CMD or RCE (Resident Chief Executive) did not mention names of any public organisation during the press meet,” OIL said in an appeal published in most of newspapers in the state.

“Last week, during a press conference, OIL Chairman and MD Sunil Kumar Srivastava had said ‘we have had 290 instances of bandhs, threatenings, blockades and other hostile activities in last fiscal in three districts of Assam —— Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Sivasagar. This has led to a total loss of around Rs 200 crore.

“OIL Resident Chief Executive K K Nath had said the firm faced troubles from both organised and unorganised entities, and received various kinds of demands from around 300 groups from the three districts in 2012—13,” the appeal said.

Following this, a number of local organisations had protested and burnt the effigies of Srivastava and Nath.

Some of the organisations were still obstructing work and creating problems at OIL’s installations in Duliajan were the All Assam Motok Yuba Chatra Sanmelan, All Tai Ahom Students’ Union and Assam Tea Tribes Students Association.

“If due to misinterpretation, the sentiments of some public organisations have been hurt, OIL management regrets the same,” the appeal said, adding that OIL has always respected the genuine concerns of people of operational areas and continued to address their issues through discussions.

Srivastava had said that against the backdrop of hostile environment, OIL’s crude oil production dipped to 3.701 million tonne during last fiscal from 3.884 million tonne in 2011—12.

He had said that it was targeted to explore 3.95 million tonne in the last fiscal, but it could not and the figure was this year’s target.

OIL had clocked a gross income of Rs 11,456.32 crore in 2012—13, while its net profit stood at Rs 3,589.34 crore.

Nath had said despite informing the police and other security agencies and getting positive support it appeared that the menace was continuing and OIL was a ‘soft target’

He had said that demands were made and if these were not met, work was obstructed.

The demands were usually job reservations from a particular community and locality, for road construction and financial contribution, Nath had added.

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