Nod for ONGC’s oil exploration in Ramnad sparks fire; TN govt steps in to douse it

CHENNAI: Putting the State government in a tough spot, the Tamil Nadu State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) granted clearance to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited to carry out onshore hydrocarbon exploratory drilling of 20 wells in the Cauvery basin in Ramanathapuram district.

In a quick move to douse the spark that threatened to rage into a political fire reminiscent of the Neduvasal protest against hydrocarbon exploration in 2017, especially with a tough election around the corner, Finance, and Environment and Climate Change Minister Thangam Thennarasu directed the authority to revoke the clearance.

"The reports of SEIAA giving a nod to the ONGC to conduct exploratory drilling in Ramanathapuram have reached the government. Following this, directions have been given to SEIAA to revoke the environmental clearance. The strong policy of Chief Minister MK Stalin is to safeguard the welfare of the farmers and public, and not to allow hydrocarbon projects in any part of Tamil Nadu," Thennarasu said in a statement.

He added that the government would not give permission to such projects in the future, too. He added that the government had declared in February 2020 that Cauvery Delta areas in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Pudukkottai, and Cuddalore a Protected Agricultural Zone and banned the extraction and exploration of hydrocarbons in the region. The protected zone was expanded to cover Mayiladuthurai in 2023, he pointed out.

According to sources, SEIAA gave its nod in March based on an application that ONGC submitted in October 2023. According to the proposal, the 20 wells, each measuring 2,000m to 3,000m in depth, would be dug at a total cost of Rs 675 crore.

In January 2020, the Union government amended the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, to transfer powers to give environmental clearances to the projects falling under B2 Category, under which oil and gas exploration projects fall. Projects in the B2 Category do not require extensive environmental impact assessment and public consultation.

The exploratory project is a part of the approval that the Centre granted to ONGC as per the third round of the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) bidding process. As per the approval, ONGC is allowed to extract hydrocarbons over 1,403.41 sqkm, including 143.97 sqkm of shallow sea. The proposed exploratory wells are the first stage of large-scale extraction.

Incidentally, the State government is yet to take a decision on a report prepared by the Sultan Ismail Committee on hydrocarbon extraction, even though the committee was formed in August 2021 by the DMK regime itself. The seven-member committee had submitted its findings on February 17, 2022.

According to the government order constituting the committee, it was asked to assess the impact on quality of surface water, flowing water, groundwater, soil and fertility of the land, irrigation sources, cultivation of crops, air quality, seawater intrusion and flora and fauna due to the usage of chemicals on the on-shore areas away from the Protected Agricultural Zone.

It was also asked to assess whether the drilling for exploration of coalbed methane, shale gas, petroleum, and natural gas would lead to any subsidence of land and destabilise the tectonic plates below the area of exploration.

Besides ecologist Prof Ismail, the other members of the committee were Indumathi M Nambi, IIT-Madras professor; M Maheswari, professor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University; V Selvam, former senior director, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation; S Ramamoorthy, Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department; S Raja, Executive Engineer, Groundwater Resources, Tamil Nadu Public Works Department; and R Karthikeyan, General Manager, Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.

Poovulagin asks pointed queries to SEIAA

Poovulagin Nanbargal, which exposed the SEIAA nod for the exploration in Ramanathapuram, alleged that the 2020 amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification was brought in at the behest of metals and mining behemoth Vedanta. The amendment removed the requirement of Union government clearance for hydrocarbon exploration wells, it said.

"Consequently, neither an EIA study, an Environmental Management Plan, nor a public hearing is mandated. On this basis, the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority granted clearance to ONGC on March 11, 2025. However, instead of being uploaded on the Union government’s new PARIVESH portal, the clearance document was placed on the older site (environmentclearance.nic.in), raising questions as to the purpose and intent of such a move,” it said.