India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp has hired US-based Halliburton to help boost crude oil output in the rebel-hit state of Assam, the company chairman said May 17.
The contract, part of a 25-billion-rupee (555-million-dollar) investment plan by ONGC to upgrade its operations, was signed last week, chairman Subir Raha told AFP.
"Halliburton will be using their skills and technologies to redevelop three main oilfields in Assam and we expect to increase production by about 50 percent in the next three years," Raha said.
ONGC now produces about 1.2 million tonnes annually of crude in Assam, located in north-east India, while Oil India Ltd, another state-run exploration firm, produces about 3.6 million tonnes.
ONGC is India's largest company by market capitalisation with oil and gas exploration and production operations throughout India and abroad in Russia, Vietnam and Sudan among other countries.