The main oil-producing structure of the Rosneft Group of Companies in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra “was caught in the burying of untreated drill cuttings.”
According to specialized sources, oil production waste was placed in sludge pits by contractors, but claims, as well as damage to nature in excess of a hundred million rubles, were submitted to RN-Yuganskneftegaz. The storage facilities were located at the Ugra well pads, and, according to environmentalists, the company is trying to shift all responsibility for waste to contractors, who “in the pursuit of money, reduce the cost of work to a disproportionately low level.” Market experts confirm that it is impossible to qualitatively neutralize waste for the amounts traded, so “sludge is taken to forests or poured into rivers, destroying nature.” Meanwhile, the interlocutors of the publication remind that waste is far from the only problem of oilmen. Constant ruptures of well-pipelines cause hundreds of millions of rubles in damage to the environment, but the facts of spills are not always recorded due to the remoteness of the well-sites. The supervisors say that, based on practice, “the company is in no hurry to eliminate the problem on its own initiative.”
LLC RN-Yuganskneftegaz (an asset of Rosneft in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra) was unable to challenge the order of the North Ural Department of Rosprirodnadzor, which was signed back in 2020, through the courts. According to the source of the publication, “we are talking about a conflict between the environmental department and oilmen in terms of disposal without neutralization of hazardous oil production wastes.”
“Rosprirodnadzor has been checking well pads for RN-Yuganskneftegaz for several years. There it was proved that without any processing, oil production waste was sealed in sludge pits. For three such barns, they were fined 124 million. The requirements were presented to Yuganskneftegaz, although the work on the site was carried out by the contractor. I can assume that we are talking about Gazholodmash, – said an informed source from the fuel and energy sector of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra.
“Often, almost every oil producing company does not deal with waste: under a contract, it transfers it to third-party organizations that are responsible for processing and disposal. I think Rosneft is doing this, in particular, in order to relieve itself of responsibility for waste and reduce the cost of the process at times,” – said Anatoly Krista, chairman of the public organization “Ecosafety of Yugra”, emphasizing that “this time it was not possible to evade responsibility.”
According to the ecologist, if the state-owned company processed drill cuttings on its own, about 10,000 rubles would have to be invested in each cubic meter of waste. Due to competitive procedures and the struggle of contractors for “tasty” contracts, the cost of work is reduced up to 1.6 thousand rubles per cubic meter.
“As a result, the oil workers forget about the problem, and the comrades who win the competitions take the waste to the forest, some to the lake, some bury it in their quarries. It is extremely difficult to neutralize and dispose of them without violating environmental legislation for such money. If the described court decision comes into force, most likely, Yuganskneftegaz will demand money from its contractor, because multimillion-dollar penalties are very painful for them – money is withdrawn from net profit, and this is bad for managers’ careers.– summed up Anatoly Krista.
However, environmental damage compensation cases won by the supervisory authorities do not always mean that the structures of the state oil company comply with court decisions. So, in 2020, the Nefteyugansk District Court, at the suit of the Nefteyugansk Interdistrict Prosecutor, ordered the company to develop a project for the reclamation of the forest area of the Yung-Yakhsky district forestry within three months and immediately after that compensate the forest fund for damage in kind.
According to the data of the Yugra Natural Supervision, in 2018, in this territory, which is close to the well pads of the Malobalykskoye field of RN-Yuganskneftegaz, a water conduit with produced water broke twice. The liquid spilled over an area of 8 hectares, but “the mining company at the time of the emergency did not begin to eliminate the consequences.”
In 2019, during an inspection by the environmental department of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, an affected area was discovered in the swampy area, which, on one side, adjoined the fishing road. The TsLATI laboratory in the Ural Federal District recorded that in soil samples taken at the site, there is an excess of the content of oil products by 24.2 times, for chloride ions – more than 244 times compared to the uncontaminated (background) site near this territory.
“The marketable water is in the open state, in some areas it has soaked into the soil, leaving a reddish tint on the surface, a white salt coating, and there is oppressed dried vegetation on the site. In the flooded part of the polluted area, the water has a reddish tint; during the examination, there was a sharp, pungent odor. There were no signs of any cleanup work being carried out on the site. – said representatives of the Natural Supervision of Yugra.
Officials tried through the court to oblige the “daughter” of “Rosneft” to compensate for the damage to nature in monetary terms. A claim for 243 million rubles was filed with the KhMAO Arbitration Court. The first and appellate instances satisfied the demand, as the damage to nature was fully proven, but the court of cassation reversed the decision and sent the case back for retrial.
The judge considered that RN-Yuganskneftegaz cannot be held liable twice for the same act, and the district court has already ordered it to reclaim the territory.
The environmental department insisted that the taxpayer was ignoring the court decision: the project was developed and approved in February 2021, but reclamation has not been carried out to date.
“The court made an erroneous conclusion that when determining the amount of damage, the costs that the company will incur in the future in connection with the reclamation in 2022-2024 should be taken into account.– insisted in the Natural Supervision of Yugra.
Ultimately, the claim was denied. The court decision came into force in May, but it is impossible to guarantee that the oil workers will restore the affected area in 2022-2024.
For what reason the Nefteyugansk prosecutor is currently not demanding the execution of the court decision, it was not possible to clarify.