The oil wells were drilled during the 1970s, but were sealed due to lack of expertise and technology at that time.

The department has recently received a documentation and translation project from a Delhi-based firm, in this regard.

MSU Head of Russian Department Prof Debal Dasgupta said, “MSU is one of the institutes in India, which is translating a part of huge chunk of documents from Russian.”

Responding to the query as to why the translation and re-documentation is being done, he said: “I assume there is some joint venture about reopening the sealed oil wells, between India, Russia and Georgia. But the work of re-documenting and translating has been outsourced and the coordinator has asked us to keep the matter confidential.”

On being asked how many oil wells were drilled in the 1970’s, he said: “As of now we have come across nearly seven wells which were drilled during 1970 – one at Tbilisi, the present day Capital of Georgia, and others in Russia and Ukraine.”

The notes show that the process of drilling and closing of wells involved several years. They started in 1970 and continued till 1972. Each note tells about the characteristic of oil and gases and when the drilling was done.

Prof Dasgupta said around 300 pages were given to the department in the first phase and 110 of them have been translated by now. He said: “The pile of documents is huge. We will be given another pile to translate, and the process will take at least six months.”

Julie Thomas, a student translating the material said: “We have translated many works, but this is different: it is more technical. The geologists had jotted down their day to day notes about drilling the wells and everyday we started on a new beginning, translating the thoughts of the geologists. The notes chronicle the process of drilling 6,000 feet deep oil wells; the results achieved; the layers they came across such as Oligocene and Eocene, and the kind of drilling in use at that time.”

Prof Dasgupta added: “It is not just that. It also includes the process characteristic and the solutions in the drilling process, the depth, the specific gravity and the base priming.”