Editing Digboi (section)

==History==
In 1889, the English started a small oil installation at Digboi. In the year 1901, an [[oil refinery]] was started at Digboi, thus providing India as well as the continent of Asia with its first refinery. 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 {{convert|7000|oilbbl/d|m3/d}} 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 {{convert|240|oilbbl/d|m3/d}}.{{When|date=October 2024|reason=The word "current" does not convey which year they are talking about}} Over 1,000 wells have been drilled at Digboi. In 1989, the [[India Post|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 is still India's oldest continuously producing [[oilfield]]. Digboi refinery, now a division of [[Indian Oil Corporation]], had a capacity of about 0.65&nbsp;million [[tonne]]s per year as of 2003.

Digboi is now the Headquarters 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]]. C.A. Bruce (1828) and 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 1866, at Nahorpung about {{convert|30|mi|km}} south east of Dibgoi, just seven years after the world's first commercial oil well was drilled in 1859, by Col [[Edwin Drake|Edwin L Drake]] in [[Pennsylvania]], USA. This hand dug well—the first oil well in India—was drilled up to {{convert|102|ft|m}} and proved dry. However, the second well struck oil at Makum near [[Tinsukia]], about {{convert|14|mi|km}} from Digboi.

In 1939, there was a major labour union [[Strike action|strike]] in the Refinery. The Gandhi Movement of Congress for Indian Independence struggle; backed by labour rights and equality status was headed by Sardar Amar Singh Marwah. The break of the World War II coincided with the Digboi labour strike resulted in harsh steps taken by the British Administrative offices to crush the strike. The Viceroy and the Governor intervened and adopted sturdy steps to crush the union by shooting down of the president of the labour union which was to be followed by issuing orders of Quit Digboi, Quit Lakhimpur and finally Quit Assam to the leaders of the labour union.

===Digboi Refinery ===
{{Further|Digboi Refinery}}
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 modernize Digboi Refinery. Digboi refinery has been awarded the [[ISO 14000 family|ISO-14001]] and OHSMC certificate.