CHENNAI: The Union government has awarded three new hydrocarbon blocks in the Cauvery basin to ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation Limited. The State-owned oil and gas majors have proposed to drill 20 wells in Nagapattinam, Karaikal and Ramanathapuram.
With the petroleum ministry pushing through a slew of reforms, the fragile Cauvery basin is now witnessing a spurt in exploration and production activities.
The key reforms include: the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) and the National Data Repository (NDR).
Express accessed the geo-scientific information of the blocks under OALP bid (round 2 & 3). It has been learnt that these three new blocks cover an area of 1,403.41 square kilometres.
IOCL is likely to dig wells in Madapuram, Tiruppundi and Kariapattinam villages in Nagapattinam, while ONGC may drill wells in Kollodam, Thiruthonipuram, Kali, and Anandatandavapuram villages in Nagapattinam and Tirukkadaiyur and Tenangudi in Karaikal.
In Ramanathapuram, ONGC will be drilling in Rajasingamangalam, Koluvur and Ramnad.
Other projects
In the OALP round-1 bidding, two blocks were awarded to Cairn Oil & Gas, a vertical of Vedanta. The company had proposed to invest a whopping `13,538 crore and drill 274 wells.
Of the two blocks awarded to Cairn, the first covers an area of 2,574 square kilometres, of which 142 falls in Nagapattinam, 39 in Karaikal and the remaining 2,393 in the Bay of Bengal.
The second one measures 1,794 square kilometres, of which 139 fall in Villupuram, 2 in Puducherry, and 1,654 in the Bay of Bengal sea. The total command area, required to carry out necessary studies, would be 4.37 lakh hectares.
The Union Environment Ministry has already issued Terms of Reference (ToR) to carry out studies to obtain environment clearance, which was reported by Express following which opposition parties protested the move.
Besides environmental concerns over the of drilling operations, the ecologically sensitive Pichavaram Mangrove Forest is just 0.49 km from the Vedanta block boundary.
Four important rivers, including Cauvery, and several other canals flow within the block. The area in the Bay of Bengal where the blocks are located is prone to cyclones.
Only recently, ONGC has submitted an application seeking ToR to drill 104 new hydrocarbon producing wells in 16 oil and gas fields falling under 11 blocks of the Cauvery basin area. This was again met with protests by delta farmers and opposition parties.
Sparks fly in the House
The hydrocarbon project causing unrest in the delta areas had its echo in the Assembly on Wednesday.
Law Minister CVe Shanmugam allayed farmers’ fears, promising that the government would never ever allow this project in the State either in land or in offshore areas.
“The Centre on its own cannot give permission for hydrocarbon exploration. The State government’s approval is mandatory as per rules. Even if the Centre gives nod for such projects in offshore areas, the State will object to it through the Coastal Zone Management Authority which comes under the State government,” he said.
Leader of Opposition MK Stalin and DMK MLA TRB Raja contended that the earlier DMK regime had only given licence to the Great Eastern Energy Corporation Limited to conduct a feasibility study for extracting coal-bed methane.
Responding to this, Shanmugam read out a press release given by the DIPR on January 1, 2011 when the MoU with GEECL was signed and pointed out that indeed the release had promised to assist the company in getting permission for the successful implementation of the project.