Digboi-The birthplace of Indian Oil Industry!

It is said that the town gets its name from the phrase "dig-boy-dig," which is what the English told the labourers 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 smelt somewhat 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. Today, though the crude production is not high, Digboi has the distinction of being India's oldest continuously producing oilfield. The Digboi refinery is the world's oldest oil refinery still in operation.
The Digboi Refinery was set up at Digboi in 1901 by Assam Oil Company Ltd.. The Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) took over the refinery and marketing management of Assam Oil Company Ltd. with effect from 1981 and created a separate division. This division has both refinery and marketing operations. The refinery at Digboi had an installed capacity 0.50 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum). The refining capacity of the refinery was increased to 0.65 MMTPA by modernization of refinery in July, 1996. A new delayed Coking Unit of 1,70,000 TPA capacity was commissioned in 1999. A new Solvent Dewaxing Unit for maximizing production of microcrystalline wax was installed and commissioned in 2003. The refinery has also installed Hydrotreater to improve the quality of diesel.



The world's first commercial oil well was drilled in 1859, by Col Willam Drake in Pennsylvania, USA.