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Black Sea oil spill blamed on Russia's
lax standards
Environmentalists and critics say the
country's booming energy industry has failed to enforce adequate
standards.
from the November 15, 2007 edition
Related Stories
 Moscow
- Sunday's Black Sea storm was admittedly one of the worst on record.
But nature's ferocity may pale next to human recklessness as an
explanation for what Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov described as "the
biggest mass sinking of ships" in the country's history.
"You can't blame everything on the weather," noted Mr. Zubkov, as he
opened an inquiry into the disaster, in which an aged river tanker
spewed at least 560,000 gallons of fuel oil in the narrow Strait of
Kerch – nearly 10 times the size of San Francisco's Nov. 7 spill.
As Russia's oil exports ramp up amid spiking global prices that reached
almost $100 per barrel last week, officials say ecological protection is
improving. But environmentalists and critics of the burgeoningenergy
industry say standards are applied selectively and warn that Russia's
oil exports travel through ill-maintained pipelines, some of which are
four decades old. Much domestic transport, meanwhile, operates far below
world standards, they contend.
"It is the goal of the Russian government to export as much oil as
possible while the prices are high and, since they are obeying official
policy, the oil companies often feel they can ignore safety concerns
with impunity," says Vladimir Slivyak, head of Ecodefense, an
independent environmental watchdog based in Kaliningrad. "Nobody thinks
about safety, everybody thinks about money," he says.
The sunken Russian oil tanker, the Volganeft-139, was a riverboat not
equipped for operation on the open sea and should never have been there,
experts say. The captain of that and several other ships set off into
the narrow and dangerous Strait of Kerch in defiance of weather warnings,
for which they may face legal action. Three bodies have washed ashore,
five men are missing, and up to 30,000 birds have perished in the wake
of the shipwrecks and resultant oil spill.
Better standards, but fairly applied?
Oleg Mitvol, deputy chief of Russia's official environmental protection
agency, says he can't comment on alleged violations in the mass sinking
of ships at Kerch since the matter is under criminal investigation but
insists that ecological protection is improving in Russia's oil industry.
"Companies didn't think about environmental safety at all until we
started inspecting them stringently," he says. He cites his recent
inspection of the private LukOil's operations in the Arctic territory of
Komi, site of a 1994 accident in which 33.6 million gallons of oil
flooded into the fragile tundra, where he forced the company to pledge
about $3 billion for new safety technology. "Russian companies are
learning to work to world standards," he says.
But critics argue that privately owned companies are disproportionately
targeted for environmental checks. "LukOil spends fives times more on
environmental protection than the state-owned Rosneft does," says Alexei
Gruzdev, an analyst with Kortes, a Moscow-based energy consultancy. "The
system is contradictory and far from ideal."
Foreign-owned oil firms can find themselves subject to crippling
environmental reviews. A year ago, as the state-owned natural gas giant
Gazprom maneuvered to take over Royal Dutch Shell's control of the
Sakhalin-2 Pacific coast oil-and-gas development, Mr. Mitvol arrived
with a team of inspectors and declared that Shell had caused up to $50
billion in damage to the delicate local ecosystem. Within weeks, Shell
sold its shares in the operation to Gazprom at a steep discount.
"If relations between a company and the authorities are good, inspectors
tend not to find any problems," says Mikhail Krutikhin, an analyst with
RusEnergy, an independent consultancy. "If relations are bad, all kinds
of troubles can crop up."
22,000 pipeline bursts per year
Most of Russia's oil exports move through the vast 50,000-km pipeline
network of Transneft, the state-owned pipeline monopoly, which offers
little public information about its operations. But according to Regnum,
a Russian online business news service, the company suffers an average
of about 10 serious leaks a year, including a 14,000-gallon spill last
year on the Europe-bound Druzhba-1 pipeline.
Experts say the real nightmare is the million or so kilometers of local
trunk pipelines that feed the Transneft system. "Almost all of these are
obsolete, and there are spillages on a daily basis," says Alexei
Kiselyov, a campaigner with Greenpeace Russia. Figures published in the
World Bank's monthly World Finance Review suggest that oil pipeline
bursts grew from about 19,000 in 2002 to more than 22,000 in 2005.
"Newly built facilities tend to be OK, but these are a tiny percentage
of the total," says Mr. Kisleyov. "The majority are in terrible shape."
Russia is planning a vast expansion of its export network, including a
2,500-mile pipeline across eastern Siberia that would supply oil to
China, east Asia, and the US.
But environmentalists say their biggest concern is planned expansion of
oil and gas exploration in the untapped Arctic, particularly if Moscow's
pending claim for economic control over nearly half a million square
miles around the North Pole is approved by the United Nations. Russia
estimates the region may contain up to 10 billion tons of petroleum.
"We're extremely worried about attempts to open the Arctic, which is
still a unique and untouched ecosystem," says Mr. Slivyak. "The safety
record of Russian oil and gas companies is very low, and there's little
indication that they learn from incidents like what happened in Kerch
this week. I fear that when they start exploring in the far north, we
can expect the same kind of carelessness."
Kerch Strait storm
tragedy and oil spill
14 November 2007Print Send to a friend Oil soaked bird.
After last weekend's storm in the Black Sea, which sunk and damaged
several ships, including oil tankers - approximately 2 thousand tonnes
of heavy oil spilled into the sea.
Enlarge ImageKerch strait, Russian Federation — Our team on the ground
reports that mitigation efforts were severely hampered due to more bad
weather. Kilometres of coast are soaked in oil, and more has sunk to the
seabed. An estimated 30,000 birds have died. The full extent of the
disaster has yet to be assessed.
Report from the scene
Sunday's storm broke in two a small Russian oil tanker, the Volgoneft-139,
off the Ukrainian port of Kerch, spilling at least 1,300 tonnes of heavy
fuel oil in what a Russian official described as an "environmental
disaster".
The same storm in narrow straits between the Black Sea and Azov Sea also
sank at least four freighters, three carrying sulphur and one with a
cargo of scrap metal. The heavy seas also cracked the hull of another
oil tanker, but the ship was afloat.
So far, a 30km length of shoreline appears to have been polluted with
oil. Not all of the oil has yet come ashore.
The sunken tanker, Volganeft-139, had traveled from the Russian port of
Azov and was anchored outside Kerch in Ukraine's eastern Crimea to ride
out the weather, when high waves broke its back at around 0445 (0145
GMT) on Sunday, media reported.
The 1978-built tanker, designed primarily for inland and coastal service,
was carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil in total when it was hit by the
storm, which has knocked out electricity supplies to much of Crimea.
The danger
Oil spills have an immediate and obvious impact on animals which use the
surface of the sea such as birds, seals and dolphins; birds in
particular are among the most obvious and serious victims.
Oil is especially dangerous for marine fauna - damaging respiratory
organs, poisoning through ingestion and robbing fur and feathers of
insulating and buoyancy properties. It can contaminate gills of fish,
which leads to suffocation. Bottom pollution destroys spawning grounds
and consequently hinders fish spawning and reproduction.
As the migratory season is now ongoing it is particularly sensitive to
the migratory birds in the area. Once the oil is on the coast then there
are impacts on the coastal and shoreline marine communities and any
possible shallow water nursery areas.
Experience from other oil spills from around the world illustrates that
impacts can be long term dependent on the type of oil, the techniques
used for mitigation, the type of ecosystem impacted. One of the most
studied oil spills was that from the Exxon Valdez which ran aground in
Prince William Sound, Alaska in March 1989. Some of the oil from that
spill can still be found over 15 years later on some beaches in the
Prince William Sound.
After a spill
When oil enters the sea, part of it evaporates (light fractions),
especially during hot weather. Part of it sinks (heavy fractions) and
the rest spreads over water surface. The light and heavy fractions
cannot be dealt with.
Booms are commonly employed to prevent oil from spreading over the sea
surface of affected areas. Skimmers are then used to suck up the oil
which is pumps into a receiving tank. In this case, poor weather
conditions made these techniques ineffective. Even in ideal conditions,
with equipment and experts deployed immediately, no more than 15-20 per
cent of the oil spilled can usually be recovered in this way.
Once onshore, various mechanical removal techniques are involved. This
varies from washing rocks, scraping rocks, removing surface sediment and,
for some shores, water flushing. But some cleaning techniques can also
lead to damage. In highly sensitive areas, vigorous clean-up techniques
can exacerbate damage. Essentially the techniques deployed depend on the
type of shoreline (rock, shingle, sand, mud, coral, mangrove, estuary),
and the type and consistency of the oil.
Our small team on the ground will continue to monitor the situation. As
an organization, we have the logistical capacity to bear witness and
push for swift action, but don't have the manpower or expertise to do
large-scale mitigation work.
Longer term
There are some obvious safety improvements that should be made in the
short term: Clean up should continue as much as technically feasible;
New rules and regulations should be put in place; Tankers intended for
inland navigation should not be used for marine transport; And anyone at
fault for this spill should be held accountable. However, the reality is
that oil spills will keep happening as long as we have oil tankers. (Some
past examples here, here and here.)
One solution is to reduce our dependence on polluting energy sources -
like oil, coal and nuclear. Another is to declare certain areas marine
reserves - protect them from extractive uses like fishing and oil
drilling, and prevent tankers from entering the most sensitive areas.
Oil spill could
pollute Black Sea for 15 years
Tony Halpin in Moscow
The Black Sea is facing its most serious ecological threat for years
after a fierce storm sank five ships, including an oil tanker and bulk
carriers laden with sulphur.
Fuel barges were also washed ashore by the heavy seas and more than 20
sailors were swept from their vessels. At least 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil
spilt into the water when a tanker broke up in the Kerch Strait, which
links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, between Russia and Ukraine.
Three ships carrying a total of 6,500 tonnes of sulphur sank close to
the Russian town of Port Kavkaz as 70mph (110km/h) winds and 18ft (6m)
waves battered the Black Sea coast. Another 40 vessels were evacuated
from the port. Fifteen crew were missing from a cargo ship that went
down near the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. Four other ships, including
two barges loaded with oil, also ran aground during the storms on Sunday,
when at least 35 crew members were rescued.
Environmental groups said that the region faced its most serious
ecological threat for years. Vladimir Chuprov, a spokesman for
Greenpeace in Russia, said: “Fuel oil will settle on the seabed and
cause hydrocarbons to permeate the Sea of Azov. This will lead to a
shortage of oxygen in the water and the unique fauna will suffer greatly.”
About a hundred workers at Ilyich, half way between Kavkaz and
Novorossiisk, used shovels and a bulldozer to remove oil that had washed
up along an eight-mile stretch of sand.
As many as a thousand birds lay on the beach coated in oil and unable to
fly. Workers said that the birds were being attacked by wild dogs.
Russian environmental officials said that the sulphur did not appear to
pose any immediate environmental danger. The polluted area lies along
the migration route from central Siberia to the Black Sea for Siberian
diver birds.
The bodies of three sailors, all wearing life jackets, were found
yesterday near the island of Tuzla, in southern Russia, the Emergency
Situations Ministry said. They were among eight missing crew of the
Nakhichevan, one of the freighters that sank with its cargo of sulphur.
Ships and helicopters scoured the area to find survivors as warnings of
a second storm were issued. Officials in Novorossiisk, the second-biggest
oil exporting port in Russia, told tankers not to dock because of the
deteriorating weather.
President Putin ordered Viktor Zubkov, the Prime Minister, to fly to
southern Russia to oversee recovery operations. The fresh storm warning
forced the suspension of operations to recover the Volgoneft-139 tanker,
which was loaded with 4,800 tonnes of oil when it broke up. Recovery
crews would try to pump the remaining oil off the tanker once the
weather improved, then tow it into port. The vessel’s 13 crew were all
rescued.
-
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1115/p01s07-woeu.html?page=2
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http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/kerch-oil-spill
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2858924.ece
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http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///11458/
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http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/11/russia.spill/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
En contaminación…OPC es la
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