A day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa ordered stopping of work at its coal gas project in the state, London-listed Great Eastern Energy Corp (GEECL) today said agriculture farming and gas extraction can co-exit safely as has been happening for years in the US.
GEECL, India’s largest producer of gas from coal seams (coal-bed methane or CBM), said agriculture activity and dry gas (methane) extraction at its Raniganj project in West Bengal have co-existed and 150 wells have so far been drilled.
“We do not require large tract of land. We need just 2 acres of land for each well and there is no large scale displacement,” Prashant Modi, President and Chief Operating Officer, GEECL said.
Agriculture and CBM extraction can go side-by-side, he said adding 2,00,000 CBM wells are operating alongside crop cultivation in the US.
CBM extraction is done in most environment friendly manner and water that comes out is used by farmers in Raniganj for irrigation purpose, he said.
“Our block in Mannargudi (in Tamil Nadu) is awaiting the consent to establish from the Tamil Nadu Government in order to start work. We have not started any work in the block,” he said.
GEECL, he said, had received the environment clearance from the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (MOEF) after going through the strict parameters and clearance from an Expert Appraisal Committee.
Jayalalithaa yesterday ordered authorities to put on hold GEECL’s project in the wake of farmers’ apprehensions that it would affect agricultural operations. She constituted an expert committee comprising academics and government officials to file a report on the project in three months.
“We welcome Tamil Nadu government’s decision to set up an expert committee to go into the issue. We have no issues with that,” Modi said.
GEECL had won the block in the fourth round of CBM bidding in 2010.
“Our Raniganj CBM operations are benchmarked to international standards in respect of quality, health, safety, and environment standards”.
“GEECL is certified for ISO:9001 (Quality Management System), OHSAS:18001 (Occupational health & safety management system), ISO:14001(Environment Management System) in its Raniganj block which reinforces the high quality of our environmental, health, safety, and quality standards,” he said.
Modi said GEECL will invest Rs 100 crore in phase-I and depending on the success in finding gas, it will invest Rs 3,000-3,500 crore in the Tamil Nadu project.