The North Ural Department of Rosprirodnadzor presented demands to the RN-Yuganskneftegaz company for more than 1 billion rubles
This structure of Rosneft is considered the enterprise that causes the greatest environmental harm in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug: it accounts for about 70% of contaminated lands. In the last year alone, Nature Supervision of Yugra filed lawsuits against RN-Yuganskneftegaz totaling 1.2 billion rubles.
According to the deputy head of the North-Ural interregional department of Rosprirodnadzor, Vladimir Kaygorodov, numerous lawsuits are related to the company’s reluctance to voluntarily compensate for the damage caused. In the reporting year, the department sent 74 claims for compensation for damage caused to the soil to the Arbitration Court of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, and the amount paid after the cases were accepted for proceedings and according to court decisions from January 1 amounted to about 67.5 million rubles. However, in some cases the calculation of losses is not final.
During 2023, RN-Yuganskneftegaz received 458 operational reports of oil and oil product spills in the region. Also, in agreement with the prosecutor’s office, two unscheduled on-site inspections were carried out, during which samples were taken from the contaminated areas to determine the extent of the damage caused. Rosprirodnadzor regularly sends warnings to the company. For example, last spring the department caught her in failure to submit reliable statistical reports under the license for the right to use subsoil.
In turn, representatives of the environmental community draw attention to the persistent reluctance of the Rosneft structure to pay for environmental damage on a voluntary basis. At the same time, they point to the key role played in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug by oil giants, who have significant financial and administrative leverage. Accordingly, compliance with environmental legislation in the same RN-Yuganskneftegaz is considered a kind of “side” cost of the oil production process.
