Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 20 2021

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Lukoil oil spill headed towards

the Barents Sea

RUSSIA AN oil spill in the Komi Peninsula is four to at a nearby lake.
five-times bigger than initially thought, and may A few months later an unusual algae bloom
An oil spill in the flood into the Barents Sea on Russia’s north-east- off the coast of Kamchatka killed all sea life along
Komi Peninsula is four ern coast if unchecked, environmentalists several kilometres of coastline in October 2020,
to five-times bigger warned on May 17. which was initially blamed on a chemical spill,
than initially thought, Komi officials declared an emergency last but later ascribed to a change in the water tem-
and may flood into week after oil spilled out of the Oshskoye field, perature in the sea.
the Barents Sea on operated by Russian oil major Lukoil. The oil As bne IntelliNews has reported, Russia’s
Russia’s north-eastern spread into the soil and local waterways, but was permafrost is melting and temperatures in the
coast if unchecked, thought to have been contained on land. Far North are rising twice as fast as elsewhere on
environmentalists Initially Lukoil said 20 tonnes of oil product the planet. Russia’s changing climate is already
warned on May 17. had spilled, but now it is reported that closer starting to have severe consequences for the local
to 90-100 tonnes have leaked, nine tonnes of environment. Some of Russia’s famously fertile
which have already got into the local Kolva arable land in the south of the country has begun
river that empties into the Arctic region’s Bar- to suffer from "desertisation", although this has
ents Sea, officials in the town of Usinsk 1,500 not affected grain production yet, which was
km north-east of Moscow said as cited by the close to all-time highs in 2020.
Moscow Times. The Lukoil spill is the first environmental dis-
If the 100 tonnes figure is confirmed that aster this year, but the polluted water has been
would make the spill five times larger than last swiftly carried downstream from the Kolva into
year’s spill by mining giant Norilsk Nickel, then the connecting Pechora and Usa rivers and is
dubbed the Exxon Valdez of Russia. now advancing toward the Barents Sea, environ-
The energy-rich Komi region witnessed one mentalists say.
of the worst oil spills in Russian history in August The local authorities said around 230 people
1994, when its ageing pipeline network sprang were working to contain the spill, but environ-
a leak that was officially said to have totalled mentalist fear that the size of the spill is too big
79,000 tonnes, or 585,000 barrels. Independent to prevent it flowing into the sea and causing
estimates put the figure at up to 2mn barrels, yet another environmental catastrophe. The oil
reports Reuters. slick already in the water will take many days to
Russia already suffered its worst post-Soviet clear up, Komi Environment Minister Alexei
environmental disaster last year after a power Kuznetsov told the state-run TASS news agency
unit belonging to Norilsk Nickel spilled over on May 17.
20,000 tonnes of oil into rivers in the Pyasino “The oil slick is definitely moving toward the
region flowing to the Kara Sea in June 2020, Barents Sea,” Ivan Blokov, head of research and
making it one of the worst ecological catastro- expertise at Greenpeace Russia, told The Mos-
phes in the history of the Arctic region. Com- cow Times.
parable to the 37,000-tonne spill of the Exxon Blokov said that while it’s too early to say how
Valdez tanker, the spill was declared a federal much oil has spilled and how much will reach
emergency by the Kremlin and Norilsk was fined the Arctic Ocean, the spill will “bring significant
$2bn for the accident. harm to local birds and fish.”
And also in June 2020, a once-in-a-1,000 year Some 10,000 oil leaks and spills take place in
snow melt flooded the TGK1 power station near Russia every year due to ageing infrastructure
Murmansk, putting two of its hydropower units and accidents, Blokov said, adding that the vast
out of action after they went underwater because majority of these leaks go unreported due to a
of “abnormal water inflow” due to melting snow lack of proper environmental monitoring. ™

Week 20 19•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11