<P> Crude oil was discovered here in late 19th century . Digboi is known as the Oil City of Assam where the first oil well in Asia was drilled . The first refinery was started here as early as 1901 . Digboi has the oldest oil well in operation . With a significant number of British professionals working for Assam Oil Company until the decade following independence of India, Digboi had a well - developed infrastructure and a number of bungalows unique to the town . It has eighteen holes golf course as part of the Digboi Club . It has guest houses and tourist residential apartments laid on Italian architectural plan to promote tourism in upper Assam . </P> <P> "Barely seven years after Edwin L. Drake drilled the world's first oil well in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA, history registered another exploration of the black liquid gold, in the largest continent . More than a century ago, history was made in a remote corner of Assam in the midst of the dense and malaria infested jungles, by a band of intrepid pioneers searching for black gold . In 1867 Italian Engineers, commissioned by the Assam Railways and Trading Company, to build a railway line from Dibrugarh to Margherita (Headquarters of Assam Railways and Trading Company) accidentally discovered oil at Digboi around 10 miles from Margherita .' Dig boy, dig', shouted the English engineer, Mr WL Lake, elephants emerging out of the dense forest with oil stains on their feet". This is possibly the most distilled--though fanciful--version of the legend explaining the siting and naming of Digboi . Two events separated by seven years have become fused, but although neither is likely to be provable, such evidence that does exist appears sufficiently detailed to be credible . Various web sites offer variations on the elephant's foot story, a consensus of which would be that engineers extending the Dibru - Sadiya railway line to Ledo for the Assam Railways and Trading Company (AR&TC) in 1882 were using elephants for haulage and noticed that the mud on one pachyderm's feet smelled of oil . Retracing the trail of footprints, they found oil seeping to the surface . One of the engineers, the Englishman Willie Leova Lake, was an' oil enthusiast' and persuaded the company to drill a well . Oil India Ltd makes no reference to elephants' feet in its company history, although on its previous web site the company noted that Lake had noticed "the oil seepages around Borbhil". Once the project had been approved, Lake assembled equipment, boilers, and local labour, and engaged elephants to haul the machinery to the site . The first well was started in September 1889, but an encouraging first strike at 178 feet (54 m) turned out to be a small pocket, and drilling recommenced . This continued until November 1890 when the well was completed at a total depth of 662 feet (202 m), and it was during this extended period of drilling that Oil India's old web site placed the legend of Lake exhorting one or more of his labourers to "Dig, boy!" </P> <P> 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 . Assam Oil Company was formed in 1899 to look after the running of the oil business in this area . The Digboi oil field produced close to 7,000 barrels per day (1,100 m / d) of crude oil at its peak, which was during World War II . The field was pushed to produce the maximum amount of oil with little regard to reservoir management; as a result, production started to drop almost immediately after the war . The current production from the Digboi fields is about 240 barrels per day (38 m / d). Over 1,000 wells have been drilled at Digboi--the first well in 1889 had stuck oil at 178 feet (54 m). In 1989, the Department of Posts, India came out with a stamp commemorating 100 years of the Digboi fields . </P> <P> Today, though the crude production is not high, Digboi has the distinction of being India's oldest continuously producing oilfield . Digboi refinery, now a division of Indian Oil Corporation, had a capacity of about 0.65 MMTPA as of 2003 . </P>

Who discovered the occurrence of oil in assam by whom