The Cairn India oil field in Barmer is India’s largest onshore block. This oil field produces about 1.75 lakh barrels of oil per day.
The company’s legal officer filed a complaint at the Barmer’s Nagana Police Station. The complaint was filed against the tanker operators after the officer suspected a scam. This racket came to light after the Rajasthan police arrested 25 people last week for their involvement in the network of oil smugglers.
According to the police officers, the five compartments in the tankers used to transport water filled with crude oil. The crude oil was thus allegedly sold to two factory owners, Gautam Singh and Bhoor Singh. The two factory owners paid Rs 7.50 per liter to the owner of the tank company. Both the factory owners sold the product in various states including West Bengal, Gujarat, and Delhi.
The company is fully cooperating with the police in this investigation. The superintendent of Barmer Police Gagandeep Singla confirmed the arrest of seventeen drivers involved in the syndicate out of which seven were the employees of the Cairn India.
After the detailed investigation from the accused the police stated that nearly fifteen thousand liters to twenty thousand liters of crude oil which had a worth of Rs three lakh was stolen every day. This cost Cairn India at least Rs 11,000 crore in losses every year.
Apart from this, the crude oil stolen from Barmer was also being supplied to factories nearby Jalore district. The information was passed on to the Jalore police, which formed three teams to locate the factories. A police team from Barmer also joined the Jalore police and raided the three factories.
Apart from recovering crude oil from an underground tank, a white colored chemical was also seized from the factory. According to the police officials, the theft was done with the involvement of field level staff and this nexus had been running since past 6 years.
