Around six years since the Nagaland Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulations and Rules 2012 was enacted by the legislative assembly and around three years since the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench issued stay order against permit issued to Metropolitan Oil and Gas Private Limited (MOGPL) on a PIL filed by the Lotha Hoho, both state government (NPNG Board) and the Lotha Hoho appeared to have agreed to resolve contentious issues.
In this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on November 20, 2018 between Lotha Hoho and Nagaland government represented by the NPNG board with certain terms and conditions to amend the Nagaland Petroleum and Natural Gas (NPNG) Regulations & Rules, 2012. As per the NPNG Regulations and Rules 2012, the state government set up the NPNG Board to monitor all activities related to oil and natural gas mining.
The NPNG regulations stipulated a three-level committee: the first comprising state ministers; the second with senior bureaucrats; and the third with junior government officers, advisers and others. The issues raised in the PIL involved the controversial firm Metropolitan Oil and Gas Private Limited which bagged the lucrative oil zones in Wokha district. Other issues also included the fixing of 8% royalty in addition to other excise tax by the state government on the plea of sharing the revenue with non-oil bearing districts.
The High court viewed that the source of power of the impugned permit in favour of MOGPL as “highly questionable, both legally and constitutionally and for which it felt, that the effect and operation of the said permit be kept in abeyance till the case was decided.