No. 4, 2004
Yelena Ostrovskaya,
Cand. Sc. (Geography), Deputy Director, Caspian Marine Research Center
IN HARMONY WITH NATURE
Ecological component of oil companies' operations in the Caspian Sea
Russia's fuel and energy complex companies, which the nation depends on for its economic growth, are, objectively, a potential threat to the ecological balance. For JSC LUKOIL, leader of the Russian oil business, protection of the environment is top priority as evidenced by its activities in the Caspian.
Technogenic hoariness of the Caspian
In many respects, the Caspian is a unique region, a habitat of many rare and endangered species. The sea has been famous, from time immemorial, for its fabulous natural wealth, especially for its sturgeon. Its mineral resources have also turned out to be unique. Today, the Caspian is identified with oil mostly – its offshore oil resources are at least double the size of the North Sea's.
However, offshore oil field development and tanker traffic may have a destructive effect on the area's ecology, therefore a go-ahead for prospecting works there was given only following the establishment of special environment impact assessment requirements by the Natural Resources Ministry of the Russian Federation.
It must be said for the Russian companies looking for oil in the Caspian that they are extremely environment-conscious and act accordingly.
Nevertheless, intensification of oil recovery from Caspian offshore fields is inevitable, meaning that the danger of technogenic impact on the fragile balance of marine biosphere increases many times over. There are over 90 exploratory oil well drilling ships at work in the Caspian waters today. Oil companies are going to increase their number to 250 by 2005.
The uniqueness of the Caspian Sea's ecosystem and a high value of its biological resources call for harsh measures to assure environmental safety.
Ecological priorities
Any experienced manager knows that his company's success largely depends on its ability to anticipate, and attune its tactics to, new economic and political trends having an effect on the market situation. Environmental protection action taken by businesses on their own initiative without waiting for instructions from the government usually serves to regulate the industry's ecological behavior in the most rational way. Commitment to ecological priorities now means not only shouldering an extra burden of obligations to protect the environment. Such a policy largely creates new opportunities for running a business responsible for more than 50% of greenhouse gas emissions in both environment friendly and economically efficient way. The worst environmental problems of the Caspian region the solution of which brooks no delay are as follows: a threat to its unique biodiversity; a reduction in the population of white fish (sturgeon, mostly); seawater pollution; progressive deterioration of the local residents' health caused by ongoing degradation of the natural environment and unfavorable economic situation.
Things are further complicated by the persisting uncertainty of the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which impedes progress of the region, and by current economic difficulties the Caspian countries are in the throes of.
The efforts now being made by the region's coastal states to save the unique ecosystem of the Caspian and to restore its fish resources are of not much use as yet, and unless the situation changes for the better in the immediate future, degradation of the Caspian Sea and its coasts may become all but irreversible. Most of the blame for what is now happening there goes to inadequate government funding of conservation projects. The answer lies in a sound environmental policy pursued in the Caspian region by business companies – oil and gas ones, in the first place.
“Zero discharge” is a reality
The Northern Caspian shelf, belonging to Russia, is of strategic importance to JSC LUKOIL. As of now, seven oil- and gas-bearing structures have been discovered on the Severny section the Company holds a license to, and six exploratory wells have been drilled into three of them. The recoverable hydrocarbon reserves of that section are tentatively estimated at 450 mln. tons of oil equivalent. By the year 2010, the Company is expected to produce up to 16 mln. tons of hydrocarbons there.
The uniqueness of the Caspian Sea's ecosystem and a high value of its biological resources call for a massive effort to assure environmental safety. That is why LUKOIL's ecological policy on the Caspian shelf is based on the “zero discharge” principle.
It is precisely on this principle that the Astra jack-up floating drilling rig, each of its three pillars 66 m tall, is operating in the Caspian almost 250 km off shore. In the drilling process, a complex of technical and organizational measures is taken to minimize its adverse effect on the marine ecosystem. The Astra is equipped with a drilling mud circulating system, polluted waste drainage systems and a sanitary sewage dump tank. The rig uses oil-free drilling muds; therefore excess mud and slime contain no oil hydrocarbons. A closed drilling mud circulating system provides for mud reuse after treatment. Drilled solids go to metal containers to be subsequently unloaded on shore into a recycling plant. Even rainwater is subject to recycling!
In order to prevent emergency waste discharges into seawater and catastrophic oil spillages, the LUKOIL exercises continuous control over the reliability of the rig's engineering systems and sees to a continuous skill upgrading of its personnel. Oil spill skimming exercises are held in simulated situations. Emergency waste discharge cleanup procedures will be modeled mathematically with a view to attaining their maximum efficiency. The oil spillage consequences elimination measures include oil spill localization and skimming, protection of coastal zones, beaches, scenic and wildlife preserves and fish-breeding farms.
Marine environment and biological resources monitoring is conducted in an area going far beyond the confines of the sea space assigned to the Company under the license. Over its seven years of operation in the Caspian area (since 1997), the Company has gathered a wealth of data embracing practically all the components (biotic and abiotic) of the marine ecosystem. Over the past few years LUKOIL has been adding the results of its comprehensive ecological studies to the Integrated State Data Bank of the RF Hydrometeorological Committee.
Compensation measures taken by the Company merit special attention. Notably, these measures are of a preventive nature because, as already pointed out above, the Company's activities are not doing the slightest harm to the environment. These measures include educational and ecological programs, fundamental research (specifically, studies of changes in the structural and functional organization of the Caspian ecosystems connected with the expansion of “intruding species,” ecologo-physiological studies of the Caspian seal – the only mammal species found there, etc.), and the holding of public ecological hearings. The ecological balance in the Caspian is extremely fragile, and oil spillages are a serious threat to its ecosystem. LUKOIL's record gives the lie to the view that “oil and fish are incompatible.” The Company does not only keep the habitat of sea organisms clean (thanks to its adhering to the zero discharge principle) but is making a substantial contribution to the reproduction of rare fish species, sturgeon in particular, by rendering assistance to local fish farms.
The Company is certain that its role in the region and the measures it is taking are a positive example of what businessmen can and should do to prevent degradation of the environment and to solve social problems. It is safe to claim that LUKOIL largely owes its business success to its environmental and social welfare projects. The leading Russian oil company is carrying on its good works because it is interested in keeping the level of social, ecological and economic stability in the region high.
LUKOIL is in active cooperation with the Astrakhan Region administration, research organizations of the RF Academy of Sciences, the Russian Hydrometeorological Committee, the State Committee of the Fisheries, and public organizations. In particular, it is drawing up, jointly with the Caspian Research Center of the Russian Hydrometeorological Committee (KaspMNITS), a Prospective Partnership Program and the basic guidelines for the projects to be carried out within its framework.
The PPP will be concerned with the promotion of environment friendly oil production, transportation and refining technologies in the Caspian, the zero discharge process technology included, preserving the unique biodiversity of the region, creating and developing an efficient environment health monitoring system in the region, and conducting ecological research there.
Naturally, all the interested parties ought to be drawn into an active dialogue and cooperation on the largest scale possible if this program is to be a success and to win public support. This is going to be a sustained uphill effort promising no early rewards.
“A road of one thousand steps begins with the first step,” the Chinese proverb goes. The Company has already made the first step. And now it is up to the other companies working in the Caspian to follow suit because it is only in such a way that this unique sea can be preserved for posterity.
