The Environmental Protection, Wildlife and Forest Relations Service of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra (Nature Surveillance of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District) recorded 3538 "accidents with environmental consequences" in 2017 on the pipelines of the largest oil companies operating in the region. The area of ​​land contaminated with oil amounted to 3.57 thousand hectares.

This is stated in the presentation of the agency published on its website. Deputy head of the department Alexei Kovalevsky confirmed RBC its authenticity. "The service site is the official source of information," he wrote in response to a request from RBC.

Most of the accidents - 3496 - were at Rosneft, and the remaining oil companies operating in the district - only 42 accidents, follows from the presentation: 29 - from LUKOIL, four from Surgutneftegaz and Slavneft (joint venture " Rosneft "and" Gazprom Neft ") and five - from other companies.

This information "is not true," the Rosneft press service's response to RBC said. "Incident classifies any minor deviations in the technological work of pipelines. <...> In reality, in 2017, not a single accident was registered, "the company stressed. According to the representative of the company, in Prirodnadzor KhMAO there is information about all the contaminated sites, including a plot of more than 557 hectares that Rosneft inherited from previous subsoil users who did not invest in environmental measures. Such lands are in terms of reclamation and will be transferred to authorized bodies in accordance with the environmental legislation of Russia, he added.

However, according to Rosneft's report on sustainable development for 2017, in Russia as a whole, the company recorded 5312 cases of oil pipeline failures and 684.3 tons of oil and oil products were spilled all.

"Oil spills in connection with the presence of worn-out pipeline infrastructure, unfortunately, are not news for our company or for everyone else. We are forced to exploit the difficult historical legacy of Soviet oil production, as well as bear the consequences of the so-called effective owners of the post-Soviet period. Their work can be described as "predatory exploitation of natural resources", - said RBC on Friday, July 6, the press secretary of Rosneft Mikhail Leontiev after the release of the material. "It is impossible to eliminate this at once. Therefore, the company is constantly updating the pipeline infrastructure, putting in billions of rubles, "he said, stressing that the company must simultaneously support oil production and ensure payments to the budget, therefore it updates the dilapidated pipes gradually.

"The appearance of sensational revelations about spills [oil], addressed to our company almost on the same day, indicates the availability of an order. Doubts about the nature of the "disclosure" of Greenpeace can not be any, given the reputation of this organization. And to shovel Greenpeace oversight state bodies - this is an extremely shameful activity, although I hope that from a material point of view it is not without interest, "Leontyev added.

"Greenpeace has information from the CDU of the fuel and energy complex, where the data of the oil companies themselves flock, and analyzes on their basis information about the annual new breakthroughs of the pipelines that result in oil spills. And, unfortunately, Rosneft is the leader here. The company that receives deposits with infrastructure built in the USSR should take responsibility for its modernization, "said Vladimir Chuprov, the head of the environmental programs of the Greenpeace Energy Company of Russia. "As for the charges in the order, I suggest you look at the Greenpeace website and the history of campaigns against spills in the fields of LUKOIL, Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegaz, BP and Shell. We are not fighting against specific oil companies, but against the environmental problems that they create. Instead of inventing conspiracy theories, you just need to take and start changing pipes, "- summed up Chuprov.

Such a large number of accidents at Rosneft in Khanty-Mansiysk, recorded by the Nature Observatory, is due to the fact that this company has the largest number of obsolete and rusted pipes in this region and in these fields, the head of the program on environmental policy TEC of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Russia Alexei Knizhnikov. "The company got problematic deposits, where pipelines were built back in Soviet times. Then the quality of these pipelines was low, "he points out.

The Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug is the main oil producing region of Russia, in 2017 it produced 235.5 million tons (43% of the total production in the country). Of these, 42.4% fell to Rosneft (its largest subsidiaries, RN-Yuganskneftegaz and Samotlorneftegaz) and its controlled Bashneft, 21.6% to Surgutneftegaz, 15.7% and 6.1% for LUKOIL and Slavneft, respectively.

Not only Rosneft

The pipeline accident is not only a problem for Rosneft, it's just for its competitors, for example LUKOIL, it is in other regions of work, particularly in Komi, Knizhnikov notes. As a result of 2017, there are no problems with oil spills due to pipeline breakthroughs, the representative of LUKOIL parries. "We change 3% of pipelines per year. As a result of investments and modern engineering solutions in 2017, LUKOIL-Komi achieved the lowest specific pipeline failure rate for Russian oil and gas production organizations of the LUKOIL Group over the past six years, "he added.

The main cause of accidents with environmental consequences (namely: contamination of soil and reservoirs with oil containing oil) - corrosion of infield pipelines of oil companies, follows from the register of accidents of the Nature Inspection of KhMAO for 2017. Accidents are due to rusty pipes, Kovalevsky said, TV2 reported. Oil from the well is a "water-gas-oil emulsion, which also contains solid particles, which, when moving through the pipeline, work like emery; they cut the pipe along the bottom edge and any defects in steel, including hidden ones, are detected very quickly, "Kovalevsky noted. Such corrosion in 70% of cases leads to breakthroughs of the pipe, he added.

According to Kovalevsky, this is a feature of KhMAO oil, lighter types of raw materials do not contain such a volume of impurities and water.

Billions on Ecology

Large oil companies spend significant funds for repairing dilapidated pipelines and reclamation of contaminated land, the presentation of Nature Surveillance of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District indicates. According to the department, in 2017, they spent 16.5 billion rubles for the reconstruction of pipelines, and in 2018 they plan to increase this amount to 22.13 billion rubles. In 2017, Surgutneftegaz repaired 601 km of pipelines, LUKoil - 547 km, Rosneft - 376 km, the document says.

For the reclamation of land in the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug in 2017, oil companies spent 2.05 billion rubles, clearing the area of ​​863 hectares, according to a presentation of the Natural Surveillance. And over the past ten years, the amount of oil contaminated land has decreased almost twofold - from 6.6 thousand hectares in 2008 to 3.5 thousand hectares. The environmental protection agency predicts that by 2020 the area of ​​contaminated land will be reduced to 800 hectares and the same amount will be reclaimed for this year. The

During the implementation of the program to improve the reliability of pipelines in Russia in 2017, Rosneft replaced more than 290,000 m of pipelines in the whole of Russia, over 278,000 m of pipelines were repaired, an inhibitor protection (corrosion protection method) was applied to 2.1 million m of pipelines, said in the response of the press service of Rosneft. Only in 2017, the investment of RN-Yuganskneftegaz into nature protection measures amounted to about 16 billion rubles. (without VAT), the company noted.

But, according to Greenpeace, Russian oil companies are not investing in the replacement of oil pipelines about 200 billion rubles. per year: within five to seven years it is necessary to invest 1.3 trillion rubles. to put in order the fleet of oil pipelines. "This is approximately 10% of the net profit of the seven largest oil companies operating in Russia," said RBC Chuprov of Greenpeace Russia. "But companies prefer to get more money, rather than investing them in replacing rusty pipes and in compensating for environmental damage."

Alexei Knizhnikov told RBC that it is necessary to ban the use of obsolete pipelines. "We believe that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Rosprirodnadzor should increase attention to this problem. Together with Greenpeace, we propose to conduct an audit of all obsolete oil pipelines of oil companies, and then legislatively prohibit the exploitation of those older than 30 years, "he added.

"Undoubtedly, old, worn out, paraffined or corroded sections of oil pipelines must be replaced," Rosprirodnadzor representative said, adding that systemic control over the condition of such facilities is necessary. "The destruction of oil pipelines, as is known, can cause significant damage to the environment, especially soils and water objects," he said, adding that the replacement of oil pipeline sections and control over their safety belongs to the competence of Rostekhnadzor.