An oil note to TN

At the height of what I thought was a protest against Coal Bed Methane (CBM) project in the Thanjavur belt, I was talking to a native, also from a farming family. The moment I said how can one destroy the lush green paddyfields of Thanjavur with a CBM project he shot back at me with such aggression, I stood stunned. “Ennamma pasumai, sudugadumma, sudugadu (what greenery, it is burial ground, burial ground) he screamed. Then he slowed down to explain the experience of his family and most others in the delta region. He said most of them were only having a hand to mouth existence, most deep in debt, and he saw any industrial project that would give jobs, push up the prices of their lands a boon.

I walked out of the conversation, unconvinced. I already knew of how in the Thanjavur delta people were quoting land prices in square feet. That is when I was dreaming of doing “organic farming”.  I gave up, for what cultivation could I do buying an acre for 24 and 25 lakhs at Swami Malai or Kumbakonam. I has to yield me gold not grains to survive.

Later that CBM block was cancelled and that put rest to the “methane vaayu thittam” protests.

Again in the last week protests have started at Pudukkottai and I see posters that show parched land, skeletal thin farmers, and captions that says Tamil Nadu to be turned into a desert.

This project as far as I know is not CBM, and should not be as intensive as in terms of drilling or damage to the land. For these are conventional oil and gas blocks, already mapped, discovered and rebid after they were surrendered by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation as unviable to be developed by a large corporation with the kind of overheads that they have.

What I am intrigued about by the protests in Tamil Nadu is – the same people run pumpsets on diesel, need fuel for their tractors and harvesters. Why do they think that it has to come from some alien land and not be pumped out of their lands? We are not an oil rich country, the oil doesn’t ooze out of the acreages like the Kurdish Iraq. So, why is extraction of oil and gas be all harmful for the lands around?

It is only when the rigs come to set up wells there may be large scale activity around. Once that is done, the land that the well itself may occupy is little. Also, there need not be any pollution from the wells, or the pipelines, it is hazardous and no oil company could or would let it go unchecked.

One may ask what at the accident that happened in a gas pipeline in Andhra or anywhere. These incidents are rare, and can be prevented by strict safety norms, regular inspections. A blowout, very, very rare, unless it is an oil field with high gas flow.

In a desert where husband worked in an oilfield for 25-years, they developed farming full with neem trees and jasmine flowers. He was also telling me about an oasis around there where a beautiful town exists alongside an oil field. I asked him about the water that is used while pumping oil or gas. What do they do with it …. He said in a desert they cannot throw that away, and they re-inject them. So, can we also do that so that there is no worry about that water getting out and polluting nearby fields.

It is a complex situation, we can endlessly debate if we want “development” or not. But, the rate at which our oil demand is increasing, any small domestic production should be good? Tamil Nadu takes pride in being one of the most developed states in the country and highly urbanized. Look at their energy needs and how they try to stall every small energy related development. The gas pipeline from Kerala to Tamil Nadu blocked. 

Koodankulam saw unprecedented protests. Any coastal energy project goes through much trouble from the NGOs who in most case get funded from outside.

Awareness about out green wealth, our land and our rivers is a must … but should that stall all the energy related projects when the state has seen severe power cuts, diesel shortages at the height of summer when diesel power generators run non-stop.

Recently I saw a famous musician came up with a song that won kudos all around. I tried to watch it for the content not for the music. I was surprised that his or the songmaker targets are Ennore power station and the Port. What would Chennai’s mercantile past been without a port? What is the city’s past without a port? What would be the city’s economics without the port? What is Tamil Nadu’s power deficit? How much does it draw from the southern grid that brings electricity from other states? Moreover, these two companies are state-owned entities, what is the issue in attacking them?