Digboi

Digboi is an oil town in northern Assam (in North East India).

Digboi as an oil town

It is rumored that the town gets its name from the phrase "dig-boy-dig," which is what the English told the laborers 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 somewhat smelt 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.

Today, though the crude production not very high, Digboi still has the distinction of being the world’s oldest continuously producing oilfield. Digboi refinery, now within the Indian Oil Corporation, had a capacity of about 0.65 MMTPA as of 2003.