Hydrocarbon production from the Neduvasal fields will result in economic benefits to Tamil Nadu and the apprehensions of farmers are misplaced, the Central government has said.
With protests against the hydrocarbon project gaining momentum, the Centre says the fields have to be put into production within three years.
In a release, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said two contract areas — Neduvasal village in Pudukottai ditrict of Tamil Nadu, and Karaikal in Puducherry, are expected to generate a gross revenue of Rs. 300 crore and the royalty would be Rs. 40 crore, apart from an additional employment for about 500 persons.
The two contract areas were awarded under the Discovered Small Fields bidding round in 2016 and have an in-place volume of 4,30,000 metric tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas.
In the past weeks, some concerns have been raised over the impact of the exploration activities in these oil and gas fields on agriculture and soil condition in the region, contamination of ground water table, and the effect of methane generation.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved the award of 31 contract areas as part of the Discovered Small Field (DSF) Bid Round 2016. Currently, there are three operational Exploration Blocks under Production Sharing Contract System in Tamil Nadu where hydrocarbon exploration is ongoing. Under the nomination regime, 31 mining leases have been granted in the State from where 600 tonnes of oil and 30 lakhs cubic meter of natural gas are produced a day.
Till date, more than 700 wells have been drilled for extraction of oil and gas in Tamil Nadu.
