Neduvasal, a fertile village of the Cauvery delta bordering Pudukottai and Thanjavur districts, is one of the 31 contract areas of small fields where exploration of hydrocarbons is to be taken up as per a recent decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
The project at Neduvasal, recommended for award to a private company, would seek to extract both oil and natural gas from hydrocarbon sediments in an area of about 10.1 sq km.
Although a well was sunk by the ONGC in Neduvasal in 2009, apparently as part of its endeavour to discover the presence of the hydrocarbon in the Cauvery basin, there has been no drilling activity in the village in recent years.
Villagers claim that no information had been given to them on the project so far and were apprehensive that the project would lead to a depletion of the water table and deprive them of their livelihood.
