Public Hearing on NRL Expansion Project held at Numaligarh

A Correspondent

Numaligarh: A public hearing was held at Chaurabasti public field near Telgaram on Friday to hear the objection/suggestions from the public, social organizations regarding the proposed expansion project of Numaligarh refinery limited (NRL). The public hearing meeting was chaired by Deputy-Commissioner, Golaghat Dhiren Hazarika wherein Pankaj Dutta, Superintendent Engineer was present as representative from State Pollution Control Board. Representatives from various stakeholders of the region/district and people living in the affected area participated in a public hearing.

The public hearing is a mandatory step in the process of environmental clearance for certain developmental projects. This provides a legal space for people of an area to come face-to-face with the project proponent and the government and express their concerns. The process of public hearing is conducted prior to the issue of NOC (No Objection Certificate) from SPCB (State Pollution Control Board). The Deputy Commissioner is the chairperson of the public hearing committee. Other members of the committee include the officials from the district development body, SPCB, Department of Environment and Forest, Gram Panchayat representatives, and senior citizens of the district etc. The hearing committee hears the objections/suggestions from the public and after inserting certain clauses it is passed on to the next stage of approval (Ministry of Forest and Environment).

Representatives of various social stakeholders, as well as locals from the affected areas, spoke on the public hearing meeting. It was seen during the meeting that almost all the people present spoke in favor of the proposed expansion project of the NRL. “The NRL expansion project will bring more employment and other livelihood opportunities for the people living in the region, we support this expansion project however we must not forget that the almighty that created us also created other living beings- birds, animals, plants. So we should think twice and should be careful while dealing with developments for mankind,” a local student of the area stated in the hearing.

Senior Journalist of the district Dipen Dutta also spoke at the end of the hearing; stating how happy he is to see the people’s support towards the expansion project of this accord NRL. This way, people have shown respect to the 855 martyrs of Assam agitation. He also stated that the expansion of the refinery will create a lot of direct and indirect job opportunities to the youths of the region.

Talking to this correspondent senior journalist and social worker Priyangdeep Kakoti stated- Involvement of the public is one of the fundamental principles of a successful EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) process. It not only provides an opportunity to those directly affected by a project to express their views on the environmental and social impacts of the proposal but also brings about transparency in the environmental clearance system.

Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), a company promoted by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Govt. of Assam and Oil India Limited (OIL) having the shareholding pattern 61.65%, 12.35% and 26.00% respectively, operating a 3 MMTPA grass root oil refinery located at Morangi Muza near Numaligarh, District Golaghat, Assam.

The overall refinery configuration at NRL consists of Crude and Vacuum Distillation Unit; Full conversion Hydrocracker unit; Delayed Coker unit; MS block comprising Naphtha Hydrotreating unit, Semi-Regenerative Reformer and Iso-merization unit; and other associated facilities such as Hydrogen Generation Unit (HGU), Sulfur Recovery Unit, Sour Water Stripper (SWS) etc. The refinery is producing motor spirit (MS) and high speed diesel (HSD) primarily conforming to EURO III/IV specifications by processing of indigenous Assam Mix crude extracted from the upper Assam oil fields by OIL. In view of the projected demand growth of petroleum products in the country and also to retain its profitability and competitiveness in the long run, NRL intends to install a parallel new train for imported sour crude processing capacity of 6.0 MMTPA.

The various units coming under 6.0 MMTPA refinery are crude distillation unit (CDU) and vacuum distillation units (VDU), Naphtha splitter (NSU) and hydro treating unit (NHT), hydro cracker unit (HCU), delayed coker unit (DCU), hydrogen generation unit (HGU), diesel hydro treating unit (DHTU), solvent de-asphalting unit (SDU), sulphur recovery unit (SRU), sour water stripper unit (SWS), Amine regeneration unit (ARU), Fuel gas sweetening unit (FGSU), Naphtha iso-merization unit, Continuous Catalytic Regeneration Reforming unit (CCR), bitumen blowing unit (BBU), slurry hydrocracker unit and LPG treating unit. This 6.0 MMTPA refinery will produce MS and HSD conforming to BS VI specifications by processing of imported sour crude.

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