Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Centre considers delinking oil, gas extraction from mining tag
NEW DELHI: The Union environment ministry is considering a proposal to delink oil and gas extraction from mining projects, as far as environmental appraisal is concerned, people familiar with the matter said.
If approved, oil and gas extraction will not be considered a mining activity anymore.
According to the people cited above, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG) has requested the environment ministry to create a separate category for appraisal of oil and gas projects on their Parivesh portal, where various environmental clearances are processed.
The minutes of a Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) meeting on March 31 said while the panel has deferred its decision on the matter, it maintained that extraction of natural gas and petroleum is not mining as per interpretation of a 2006 Supreme Court order.
HT has seen a copy of the minutes of the FAC meeting.
In a request to the environment ministry on January 31, the MoPNG director general had asked the Centre to create a separate category for hydrocarbon projects which are currently applied under the mining category.
The MoPNG is seeking a separate category of clearance for oil and gas because if it is considered a mining activity, the environmental norms may prove to be more stringent, an official in the ministry said. “They will need permission from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) if the extraction needs to take place in forest areas or in an eco-sensitive zone of a wildlife reserve. Mining activities will need a forest clearance also, besides an environmental clearance,” the official said.
The FAC has sought comments from the wildlife, and forest conservation division of the environment ministry to understand the implications of delinking oil and gas extraction sector from mining.
The issue of delinking hydrocarbons from mining projects was first considered by a standing committee of NBWL in 2018 while dealing with a proposal related to Tripura, where it was decided that the Tripura government should obtain the opinion of its advocate general (A-G) in the matter. The
A-G had said that the extraction of natural gas and oil cannot be considered as mining in terms of the Supreme Court order dated August 4, 2006 in TN Godavarman vs Union of India case.
“Oil and gas extraction is not the same as open cast mining but the impact of the extraction can be several times higher. Look at what happened in Assam’s Baghjan in 2020 in the oil and gas leak and fire...,” environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta said.
On June 6, 2019, MoPNG secretary sent a request to the ministry to delink oil and gas exploration from mining activities. The FAC considered the matter in their meetings and recommended that MoPNG may seek legal advice from the ministry of law and justice on whether survey, exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas should be treated as a mining activity.