I usually hate digging up something new, while attending to another task already.
While working on the controversies related to Isha Foundation, some of my friends also asked me to look at the Kaveri Delta Methane digging issue. This is my first post on that and I will post some more soon.
What is the Methane project in Tamilnadu?
A controversial topic that has been going on for a while now, this Kaveri delta methane problem has seen its fair share of controversies already.
The project is undertaken by Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL), a private company based in Gurgaon, Haryana. The company received a CBM-IV (Coal Bed Methane) license to explore and extract methane gas from Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Thiruvarur districts which are known to be major rice cultivating areas of Tamil Nadu.
Here is a twist in the information out on public domain - the wikipedia link says "The company has a plan to drill 50 core production wells of 150-450 metre deep in the ground" but GEECL's own website says "It will start with 30 pilot production wells and 50 core holes at the 667 sq km Mannargudi block"!
Oh, by the way, the area of city of Chennai is 426 Square kilometers. So, we are talking about something bigger than a whole metropolitan city. It is not clear whether the whole area will be owned by the company or that the company will just be drilling within that big an area. Hope it is the latter ...
Politics of the project
The project was signed off and license issued to GEECL by the then DMK Government of the state. There were a few protests right from that time by popular agricultural and social activists. In September 2012, the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (uMOEF) issued environmental clearance to the project, under Congress Government.
The subsequent ADMK Government put a hold on the license and no doubt, at least some of it is as part of reversing the earlier Government's decisions. It is definitely not all just because of the protests since there is no solid material out there in public domain that has been used as scientific evidence by the protesters (there are opinions published though).
I will try to get a scientific angle to this as well. Who knows - some protesters or supporters of the project may find my post useful for their arguments? :)
Know GEECL better, The Company under Fire
- The company's website says it is under the umbrella of "YKM Holdings Group Company".
- Country of Incorporation is marked as India from 1991. Promoter group has 61.78% of shares. So, obviously they can make or veto out major decisions.
- Prudential PLC holds the next major chunk of shares, about 15%. BTW for those who do not know of it, Prudential is a UK based company. Since August 2010, Prudential has held a major stake in many mining & mineral companies across the world.
- There is something suspicious about the YKM Holdings company itself. The Bloomberg site (in reference) does not show any key executives recorded. GEECL's website though shows key personnel.
Know the science, just a little bit
- The process being planned for extracting Methane is termed 'Fracking', defined as "the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas"
- Fracking is generally considered bad by many but question is if it is truly that bad, then why the governments across the world are issuing licenses to companies to use the technique for Oil & Natural Gas exploration?
- Some information available points linking to expansion of underground fissures and mild earthquakes being caused by fracking. But this is not very conclusive as yet.
- Question to GEECL: do we really need 30 pilot wells out of 50 production wells to evaluate fracking's impact in that area? If you really want to gain public support and prove that it is not an environmental problem, try 2 or 3 holes to show it works fine.
Does fracking have any benefits at all?
- Apparently so! There are lot of difficult-to-reach sources of Oil & Gas which can be reached only through Fracking so far.
- In the USA, it has significantly boosted domestic oil production and driven down gas prices.
What next?
- The next steps would be to investigate the truth behind the problems with fracking as a science.
- Identify the personal networks of the key people and see who is behind this organization really.
References you can enjoy:
I am deliberately not using the existing YouTube videos of supporters and detractors - don't want to be biased in my research early.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaveri_delta_coal-bed_methane_project
(2) https://www.quora.com/How-bad-is-the-proposed-methane-project-in-Thanjavur-Delta-region
(3) http://moneytometal.org/index.php/Prudential_PLC
(4) http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/default.aspx?TabId=836&CompanyId=19296&CategoryId=363
(5) http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14432401
(6) https://www.quora.com/Is-the-ongoing-methane-gas-project-by-GEECL-at-the-Kaveri-Delta-coal-bed-justified-It-is-alledged-that-the-project-spoils-environment-and-takes-away-the-livelihood-of-farmers-living-there-How-far-is-this-true
(7) http://frack-off.org.uk/resource/20-impacts-of-coal-bed-methane-cbm/
(8) http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=39099532
(9) http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=11636739&privcapId=25069886
While working on the controversies related to Isha Foundation, some of my friends also asked me to look at the Kaveri Delta Methane digging issue. This is my first post on that and I will post some more soon.
What is the Methane project in Tamilnadu?
A controversial topic that has been going on for a while now, this Kaveri delta methane problem has seen its fair share of controversies already.
The project is undertaken by Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL), a private company based in Gurgaon, Haryana. The company received a CBM-IV (Coal Bed Methane) license to explore and extract methane gas from Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Thiruvarur districts which are known to be major rice cultivating areas of Tamil Nadu.
Here is a twist in the information out on public domain - the wikipedia link says "The company has a plan to drill 50 core production wells of 150-450 metre deep in the ground" but GEECL's own website says "It will start with 30 pilot production wells and 50 core holes at the 667 sq km Mannargudi block"!
Oh, by the way, the area of city of Chennai is 426 Square kilometers. So, we are talking about something bigger than a whole metropolitan city. It is not clear whether the whole area will be owned by the company or that the company will just be drilling within that big an area. Hope it is the latter ...
Politics of the project
The project was signed off and license issued to GEECL by the then DMK Government of the state. There were a few protests right from that time by popular agricultural and social activists. In September 2012, the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (uMOEF) issued environmental clearance to the project, under Congress Government.
The subsequent ADMK Government put a hold on the license and no doubt, at least some of it is as part of reversing the earlier Government's decisions. It is definitely not all just because of the protests since there is no solid material out there in public domain that has been used as scientific evidence by the protesters (there are opinions published though).
I will try to get a scientific angle to this as well. Who knows - some protesters or supporters of the project may find my post useful for their arguments? :)
Know GEECL better, The Company under Fire
- The company's website says it is under the umbrella of "YKM Holdings Group Company".
- Country of Incorporation is marked as India from 1991. Promoter group has 61.78% of shares. So, obviously they can make or veto out major decisions.
- Prudential PLC holds the next major chunk of shares, about 15%. BTW for those who do not know of it, Prudential is a UK based company. Since August 2010, Prudential has held a major stake in many mining & mineral companies across the world.
- There is something suspicious about the YKM Holdings company itself. The Bloomberg site (in reference) does not show any key executives recorded. GEECL's website though shows key personnel.
Know the science, just a little bit
- The process being planned for extracting Methane is termed 'Fracking', defined as "the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas"
- Fracking is generally considered bad by many but question is if it is truly that bad, then why the governments across the world are issuing licenses to companies to use the technique for Oil & Natural Gas exploration?
- Some information available points linking to expansion of underground fissures and mild earthquakes being caused by fracking. But this is not very conclusive as yet.
- Question to GEECL: do we really need 30 pilot wells out of 50 production wells to evaluate fracking's impact in that area? If you really want to gain public support and prove that it is not an environmental problem, try 2 or 3 holes to show it works fine.
Does fracking have any benefits at all?
- Apparently so! There are lot of difficult-to-reach sources of Oil & Gas which can be reached only through Fracking so far.
- In the USA, it has significantly boosted domestic oil production and driven down gas prices.
What next?
- The next steps would be to investigate the truth behind the problems with fracking as a science.
- Identify the personal networks of the key people and see who is behind this organization really.
References you can enjoy:
I am deliberately not using the existing YouTube videos of supporters and detractors - don't want to be biased in my research early.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaveri_delta_coal-bed_methane_project
(2) https://www.quora.com/How-bad-is-the-proposed-methane-project-in-Thanjavur-Delta-region
(3) http://moneytometal.org/index.php/Prudential_PLC
(4) http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/default.aspx?TabId=836&CompanyId=19296&CategoryId=363
(5) http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14432401
(6) https://www.quora.com/Is-the-ongoing-methane-gas-project-by-GEECL-at-the-Kaveri-Delta-coal-bed-justified-It-is-alledged-that-the-project-spoils-environment-and-takes-away-the-livelihood-of-farmers-living-there-How-far-is-this-true
(7) http://frack-off.org.uk/resource/20-impacts-of-coal-bed-methane-cbm/
(8) http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=39099532
(9) http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=11636739&privcapId=25069886
Wait for my subsequent posts on this issue ..
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