No. 3, 2009
Dmitry Krasovsky
ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AS A PRIORITY
In its operations, LUKOIL-Komi focuses on protecting the environment from man-made impacts
In 1994, all global media reported a major oil pipeline accident in the Usinsk district in the Republic of Komi. Top priority measures to minimize environmental disaster in that northern region of Russia were followed by years of difficult environmental rehabilitation work, in which LUKOIL specialists have been fully and effectively involved since 1999.
Recovery of the Usinsk ecosystem
The environmental situation that had taken shape in the Republic of Komi by 1999 was quite a difficult one, owing to the consequences of an accident that happened in 1994. The 720 mm Vozey-Headworks pipeline was started up in May 1975. After July 1988, a multitude of leaks sprung on the pipeline as a result of internal corrosion of the pipes. The same year, the PechorNIPIneft Institute measured pipe wall thickness and established that the pipeline was on the verge of full or partial destruction which, according to its calculations, was likely to take place in 20 months, i.e., in March 1990.
In 1994, 16,000 tons of oil-containing fluid were pumped along the pipeline every day. As a result of fly-overs and visual inspection of the Vozey-Headworks pipeline, 23 cracks were discovered on August 12, 1994. In the course of repairs, the supply of fluid to the pipeline from the Northern group of fields was reduced (from August 26, 1994) and then stopped altogether (from September 6).
According to environmentalists' estimates, from 100,000 to 200,000 tons of oil were spilled on an area of about 270 hectares as a result of the accident. Flora and fauna species were almost completely destroyed at the site of the
environmental disaster. Numerous river tributaries and lakes were contaminated. Most of the oil-containing liquid leaked into the Kolva and Usa rivers actively used by fisheries.
Komineft was extended a $124 million emergency response loan to rectify the situation. The emergency loan funds allocated for eliminating of the consequences of the 1994 disaster had all been spent and the consequences of the 1994 spill had not been liquidated over an area of 106.5 hectares out of the 270 hectares of polluted and destroyed land. A total of over 100,000 m3 of oil-containing waste, formed in the process of oil-spill recovery from the polluted locations and oil-saturated soil removal, was collected in temporal storage pits over the disaster area.
As LUKOIL launched its operations in the Republic of Komi in 1999, a new stage began in the rehabilitation of lands contaminated and damaged by oil production. An oil-polluted land inventory was carried out in Komineft's zone of operations, after which 350 enclosures were identified over an area of 745 ha of oil-polluted territories, including 106 ha pertaining to the 1994 disaster. It was established that over 200,000 tons of oil-containing waste (including 100,000 tons formed during the 1994 accident response operations) were stored in temporary sludge tanks. A Corporate Environmental Action Program for oil-polluted land remediation in (2000-2005) was drawn up and agreed with the Republic of Komi Government.
Within the framework of this program and the LUKOIL Group's Environmental Safety Corporate Program for 2004-2008, LUKOIL-Komi carried out environmental rehabilitation work in 2000-2006 to reclaim and hand over to the Republican commission 782.5 hectares of land previously contaminated by oil spills and disposed of over 300,000 tons of oil-containing waste, including 80,000 tons accumulated during the 1994 emergency response operations. In addition, 978.3 hectares of damaged forest lands were reclaimed and returned to the forestries.
During the same period, LUKOIL-Komi successfully carried out pilot oil skimming operations at Lake Shchuchye (area: 4 ha) at the Vozeyskoye oil field.
The land reclamation efforts carried out in accordance with the Komineft Corporate Program for Environmental Rehabilitation of Polluted Land and Prevention of Accidental Oil Spill in 2000-2005, as endorsed by LUKOIL and approved by the Government of the Republic of Komi, allowed the Republican government to lift the environmental disaster status off the Usinskoye oil field already in 2004.
For the sake of the future
LUKOIL-Komi acknowledges its responsibility toward the public for maintaining a favorable environment and making rational use of natural resources. Its HSE policy is based on the key provisions of LUKOIL's HSE policy in the 21st century and includes the following key principles and priorities: a planned and continuous reduction in the number of accidents and in the negative impact exerted by production activities on the environment; higher environmental safety of production facilities; a reduction in the negative environmental impact through higher reliability and safer and accident-free operation of oilfield equipment; sustainable use of natural resources through consistent oil-loss reduction, better use of associated petroleum gas, and waste treatment and utilization; efficient operation of the HSE management system.
LUKOIL-Komi currently focuses on oil spill prevention. Since 2000, the Company has replaced about 1070 km of various dia oil pipelines, including 500 km of sour-service pipes.
LUKOIL-Komi specialists annually carry out diagnostics of about 200 km of pipelines, examine all siphon passages across rivers. Each year, up to 3,000 tons of corrosion inhibitors of various brands are injected into the oil collecting system. Since 2005, the Company has been actively engaged in issuing safety certificates for facilities that deal with the production, use, formation, storage and transportation of hazardous substances. Over three years, 321 facilities have undergone certification.
The company is successfully preventing potential oil leaks into the Kolva, Usa and Pechora rivers thanks to a two-tier protection system currently in operation. It has built two new hydroseals on the Bezymyanny-5 brook of the Usinskoye oil field and the Vorgayel brook running across the Vozeyskoye field. Another three hydroseals have been modernized.
LUKOIL-Komi has switched from the 1994 disaster response measures to the restoration of biological resources, in particular, the increase in fish populations in Usink water reservoirs. In the summer of 2007, the company's staff released 100,000 grayling juveniles specially grown from spawn at a fish farm on LUKOIL-Komi's order into the Kolva river. In early July 2008, a second batch of 200,000 young fishes were released into the Kolva.
By 2008, the company's spending on nature conservation (reclamation of oil contaminated lands, sludge processing, inhibitor protection, the repair and improvement of oil collection and transportation systems, diagnostics of pipelines, the construction of nature conservation facilities, etc.) had reached over 10 billion rubles.
LUKOIL-Komi is carrying out its environmental policy within the framework of the LUKOIL Group Environmental Safety Corporate Program for 2009-2013 and proceeds from the strategy of the Republic of Komi government and the administration of the Nenets Autonomous Area for the development of the Timan-Pechora oil- and gas-bearing province.
The management of LUKOIL-Komi is fully aware of the need to keep scaling up its environmental efforts and is firmly resolved to make a worthy contribution to preserving the natural wealth of the Russian North.
