Digboi Oil Town

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?Digboi Oil Town Assam • India
Coordinates: (find coordinates)
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
District(s)	Tinsukia
Population	16,584 (2001)

Digboi Oil Town is a census town in Tinsukia district in the state of Assam, India.

1 Digboi as an oil town
- 1.1 Digboi Refinery at Present
2 Demographics
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Digboi as an oil town

It is said that the town gets its name from the phrase "dig-boy-dig," which is what the English told the labourers as they dug for crude oil. The town's history begins in 1867 when a small group of men from the Assam Railway and Trading Co. found their elephants' legs soaked in black mud, that smelt somewhat like oil. The men began exploring more, and in 1889, the English started a small oil installation. India (and Asia) obtained its first refinery in Digboi in the year 1901. Assam Oil Company was formed in 1899 to look after the running of the oil business in this area. The Digboi oil field produced close to 7,000 barrels/day of crude oil at its peak, which was during World War II. The field was pushed to produce the maximum amount of oil with little regard to reservoir management; as a result, production started to drop almost immediately after the war. The current production from the Digboi fields is about 240 barrels/day. Over 1,000 wells have been drilled at Digboi – the first well in 1889 had stuck oil at 178 feet (54 m). In 1989, the Department of Posts, India came out with a stamp commemorating 100 years of the Digboi fields.

Today, though the crude production is not high, Digboi has the distinction of being the world’s oldest continuously producing oilfield. Digboi refinery, now a division of Indian Oil Corporation, had a capacity of about 0.65 MMTPA as of 2003. The Digboi refinery is the world's oldest oil refinery still in operation.

Digboi is now Headquarter of Assam Oil Division of Indian Oil Corporation Limited. The Earliest recorded to the existence of oil in India is found in the memories and dispatches of the Army Officers who penetrated the jungles of Upper Assam since 1825. Lt. R. Wilcox, Major A. White, Capt. Francis Jenkins, Capt. P.S. Hanney -- they all saw at different times petroleum exuding from banks of the Dihing River. Mr. C.A. Bruce (1828) and Mr. H.B. Medicott (1865) of the Geological Survey of India also saw oil while prospecting for coal in Upper Assam.

Mr. Goodenough of McKillop, Stewart & Co. Calcutta was the first in India to start a systematic programme of drilling for oil in November 1886, at Nahorpung about 30 miles (48 km) south east of Dibgoi, just seven years after the world's first commercial oil well was drilled in 1859, by Col Willam Drake in Pennsylvania, USA. This hand dug well -- the first oil well in India -- was drilled up to 102 feet (31 m) and proved dry. However the second well struck oil at Makum near Margherita, about 8 miles (13 km) from Digboi.

[edit] Digboi Refinery at Present

The Digboi Refinery modernization project was taken up in large scale in order to overcome the technological obsolescence of the old refinery. Subsequently a number of other major projects were undertaken by Assam Oil Division to further revamp and modernise Digboi Refinery. This includes the Wax Hydro-finishing Unit (WHU) which is now under commissioning, the Solvent Dewaxing/Deoiling Unit (SDU) whose target date of commissioning is November 2002. The Target date of commissioning of the Hydrotreater is May'2002 and the target date of commissioning of the Vacuum Residue Short Path Distillation (VRSD) is October 2002. Digboi refinery has been awarded the ISO-14001 and OHSMC certificate.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census,^[1] Digboi Oil Town had a population of 16,584. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Digboi Oil Town has an average literacy rate of 82%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 84% and, female literacy is 79%. In Digboi Oil Town, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age. Digboi is emerging as a town of worldclass streets and medical facilities. It is also known for the emerging enterpreneurs. This place is also famous rich cultural organisations and care societies.