Ugra authorities called Rosneft structures the main source of oil spills in the region

Officials and departments called Rosneft structures the main source of pollution on the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. Regulatory authorities note that the state-owned company is delaying the fulfillment of obligations to compensate for damage caused to the environment, reports the Oktagon publication.

The head of Rosprirodnadzor of the Russian Federation, Svetlana Radionova, called Yugra the most problematic region, based on the calculation of the damage caused to the environment in 2020-2022. The most acute issue in Ugra today is the issue of saving forests, swamps and rivers from oil spills, which regularly occur in Western Siberia.

According to the head of the Service for Control and Supervision in the Field of Environmental Protection, Wildlife Objects and Forest Relations of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra Sergey Pikunov, the traditional leader in breakthroughs and damage is the Rosneft structure RN-Yuganskneftegaz.

“The accumulated volume of pipelines requiring replacement and the lagging pipeline safety management system are the main reasons why Rosneft has the highest accident rate in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra. This year there were no large spills yet, but the facts of local pipeline breaks were recorded. We issue claims for damages. If they are not paid voluntarily, we collect them through the court. Voluntarily pay in 60% of cases. In courts, claims for compensation often come down to compensation in kind by the company,” Sergey Pikunov explained.

According to the Government of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, the bulk of oil spill incidents are attributable to RN-Yuganskneftegaz and Samotlorneftegaz (part of Rosneft). These companies concentrated more than 80 percent of the total area of ​​affected land on their balance sheet. Large areas of uncultivated land are also registered with JSC Tomskneft VNK, the oil company RussNeft and LUKOIL.

A portal source in the Nizhneobsky Territorial Administration (TU) of the Federal Agency for Fishery said that until September 30 last year, the main asset of Rosneft in the Urals, LLC RN-Yuganskneftegaz, had to compensate for the damage to the Yugra rivers caused by the construction of well clusters in the Priobsky, Malobalyksky and Petlinsky fields, as well as a network of oil pipelines in their license areas. These works were not completed, according to the source of the publication, although some bushes were erected back in 2012-2016.

In May last year, inspectors from the Nature Supervision Authority of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra recorded that there was oily liquid in the soil and water on the territory of Nyalinsky, which got there from the pipeline infrastructure of RN-Yuganskneftegaz, the publication reports.

According to the conclusion of RASTAM-Ecology LLC, the content of oil products in the soil exceeds the norm by 77.6 times.

Yugra officials through the court tried to obtain compensation for environmental damage in monetary terms, since in 2021 the culprit did not start work on the rehabilitation of the affected territory. The structure of Rosneft did not deny the fact of the incident, but also refused to compensate for the damage with money, referring to the developed reclamation project. The work is planned to be carried out in 2024-2025. In March, the arbitration agreed with the arguments of the representatives of the fuel and energy complex, allowing the recultivation to begin in three years.