Saikat Bhattacharjee

Oil India Limited

Oil India Limited (OIL) is a fully integrated Exploration & Production company in the upstream sector, with origin dating back to the glorious year (1889) of oil discovery in India. A Navratna Company, OIL is a state-owned enterprise of the Government of India, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and is the second-largest national oil and gas company in India. OIL is engaged in the business of exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas, transportation of crude oil and production of liquid petroleum gas. The company's history spans the discovery of crude oil in the far east of India at Digboi, Assam in 1889 to its present status as a fully integrated upstream petroleum company. Type Public Sector Undertaking Industry Oil and gas Founded 18 February 1959 Headquarters Duliajan, Assam, India Key people Mr Sushil Chandra Mishra (Chairman & MD) Products Petroleum, natural gas, and other petrochemicals Revenue ₹12,028 crore (US$1.8 billion) Owner Government of India (56.66%) Website www.oil-india.com Oil India Limited was formed by the Burmah Oil Company Limited as its subsidiary in India 1887 to explore in the Assam Basin, India ( Corley, T A B, 1983, The History of the Burmah Oil Company, 1886-1983). Staff at the Burmah Oil Company Limited had heard from a geologist with the colonial British Indian Geological Survey, Thomas Oldham, that oil was found on the feet of elephants that were being used as beasts of burden in the vicinity of the Digboi village (Arun Metrie, pers. comm., former Burmah Oil economist, 1988). The oil on the elephants'​ feet was traced to the Digboi area, where a surface fold (anticline in geological parlance) had formed a broad hill.