DIGBOI, India -- Nestling among green rice fields and tea gardens in a remote corner of northeastern India, one of the world's oldest running refineries has traditionally offered its workers a job for life.

Set up in 1901 in the heyday of British colonial rule in the heart of an area where oil was first drilled in India, digboi refinery and its staff process around 2,000 tons of crude oil every day.

But the remoteness of Digboi -- dotted with old-world houses with extended patios and sloping roofs -- no longer shields it from the cold winds of globalization that are buffeting the rest of the country.

For the first time, the word "downsizing" is being heard in Digboi.

"We plan to cut our workforce from 2,700 to around 1,200 workers by March 2006. In this climate, we need to rightsize," says human resources deputy general manager Nandan Saikia.

The sprawling refinery, now owned by the state-run Indian oil corporation, and Digboi town that grew up around it, lie 520km (333 miles) east of Guwahati, the main city of insurgency-racked Assam, a state rich in oil and tea.

To protect the refinery from separatist guerrillas of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and other militant groups in India's restive north-east, paramilitary soldiers armed with automatic weapons patrol around the unit.

Ten-foot (three-meter) high concrete walls, topped by barbed wire, also surround the refinery.

But the ULFA rebels -- who accuse New Delhi of exploiting Assam's tea and oil resources -- have not attacked the refinery and the scene in general is one of tranquility.