Oil spill in Western Siberia
The oil spill in Western Siberia affects by far the largest oil-contaminated land area and the largest oil spill on earth in terms of volume . It involves extensive oil spills from numerous oil spills and accidents (release of drilling waste, leaking storage tanks and landfills, etc.) on pipelines and production facilities, as well as the flaring of gas and oil in the West Siberian oil production region of Tyumen , examined for example in the Samotlor oil field near Nizhnevartovsk . Almost 70 percent of the oil disasters affect the autonomous districts of the Khanty and Mansi and the Yamalo-Nenets , where around 60 percent of Russian oil is extracted. According to Greenpeace estimates, more than 125,000 tons of crude oil flow into the Arctic Ocean each year via the Ob alone . In total, an average of more than 15.3 million tons of oil are expected to enter the environment every year.
According to studies commissioned by Greenpeace and other NGOs , up to 5,000 breaks in obsolete and ailing oil pipelines occur every year. Leaking oil contaminates soil and water. Huge oil lakes destroy the habitat of people, animals and plants. In addition to the dramatic environmental pollution, the oil spill threatens traditional forms of economy - above all reindeer nomadism , as well as hunting and gathering - and thus the livelihood of some local communities of three indigenous peoples in the Russian north ( Chanten , Mansi , Nenets ).
In addition to the original responsibility of the Russian state, Greenpeace also sees the oil companies TotalFinaElf Deutschland GmbH and the Swiss Elf-Trading as responsible, as they purchase the oil directly via the Druzhba pipeline . As a result, Greenpeace lodged a complaint with the OECD in February 2002 . Despite the undoubtedly existing grievances, the complaint was not accepted by the German National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, as the guidelines were not applicable in this case.
Claims assessment
The following statements are mainly based on a report by the Dutch consultancy IWACO from August 2001, which was prepared on behalf of Greenpeace.
Oil was first encountered in Western Siberia in 1956. There are 500 oil fields in the Tyumen region, which in terms of size and extent correspond to the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. The first conveyor systems were already in place in 1960 and a few years later pipelines were laid from Perm to Tyumen and a railway was built between the Ob River and the Urals. Due to the subarctic climate - with permafrost soil , extreme winter cold and summer swamps - particularly difficult conditions apply there for oil production. For example, all structures that radiate heat have to be insulated in order not to endanger the load-bearing capacity of the soil by thawing the permafrost. Due to the drastic temperature differences, material fatigue is very high. This also applies to the access roads, the condition of which is rapidly deteriorating. This fact and the weather-dependent accessibility of the systems makes the delivery of spare parts and the like. Difficult or even impossible for many weeks.
To find additional oil wells, five nuclear blasts were carried out between 1978 and 1985 to seismically map the rock. Radioactively contaminated material ended up in the Jugan River and its surroundings. Due to the ongoing contamination with oil, 28 larger rivers and 100 smaller bodies of water were already biologically dead in 1989 and fishing on the Ob River had to be stopped. From 1984 to 1990 around 100 million tons of oil entered the ecosystems in the Chanten and Mansen residential area alone .
Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union , the situation did not improve: the pipelines are in a very poor condition and are not adequately maintained and repaired. Around 3–7 percent of the import volume that TotalFinaElf purchases for its refinery in Leuna is lost on the way through leaks. That corresponds to around 300,000 to 700,000 tons of crude oil annually. In relation to the entire West Siberian oil production, 8-10 percent is lost in the production. As of 2001, this amount had already severely contaminated around 8,400 km² of land in Western Siberia - an area almost the size of Corsica. In addition, there is the unimpeded flaring of the associated gases and the pumping of a mixture of water and hydrochloric acid into the rock chambers. More than three quarters of this concern the Samotlor oil field around the city of Nizhnevartovsk , which the World Bank has declared an "ecological disaster zone":
- About 50 percent of the fished rivers in the region are contaminated with oil
- Oil soot from combustion pollutes the surface of the earth and kills animals and plants
- Health risks to the local population from polluted air and drinking water
- Local temperature increases of up to 10 ° C thaw the permafrost and lead to damage to flora and fauna
- two to three times the number of forest fires
- blatant water shortage in the rivers with consequences for shipping
- Accelerated corrosion from the hydrochloric acid on the pipelines
- Climate-damaging impairment of the carbon dioxide storage function of the boreal forest and moors
Effects on indigenous people
According to the Society for Threatened Peoples, more than half of Russia's oil reserves are in the Khanty and Mansi areas . They and some other indigenous groups in the area are trying to continue their largely independent traditional ways of life despite increasing urbanization : They live from reindeer herding, fishing, hunting and gathering. The oil industry - which has already led to a significant marginalization of the Siberian peoples without the oil spill - is primarily destroying the reindeer pastures. In the summer there are a lot of reindeer in the area of the drilling sites, because the mosquito exposure is less. The animals here feed on contaminated plants or die in oil pits. In addition, many prey animals are contaminated with oil. People are either trying to come to terms with the corporations or to protest against them.
Current development
According to a report in The Moscow News from mid-2012, the situation in western Siberia is said to have improved overall due to the declining number of oil spills and the increase in recultivated land. The WWF environmental coordinator Knischnikow admits, however, that the assessment of the disaster control of the oil companies and the recultivation measures is difficult. “They can report that the land has been recultivated while they have only covered the contaminated soil with sand,” he criticizes.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Julia Ponomarewa: Leaks in Russian oil pipelines Russia beyond the headlines - rbth.com in The Moscow News of August 30, 2012.
- ↑ Karsten Smid (author), Greenpeace Germany (ed.): Black Book Security of Supply. pdf version , 03/2006. P. 6.
- ↑ Background text on oil and gas production in Western Siberia , Society for Threatened Peoples , Göttingen 2005
- ↑ Complaints not accepted for in-depth examination at the German National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises , published by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on July 30, 2014.
- ↑ M. Lodewijkx, Henk Blok. Verina Ingram, Reimond Willemse, TF Huber: West Siberia Oil Industry Environmental and Social Profile - Final Report IWACO Rotterdam (NL) 2001.
- ↑ Jörg Feddern: Huge land areas in Siberia contaminated with oil. innovations report, Forum for Science, Industry and Economy, August 6, 2001.
- ^ Yvonne Bangert, Sarah Reinke: High price for oil and gas. Siberia's indigenous people are sacrificed to the industrialized nations' hunger for energy. Society for Threatened Peoples , Göttingen, Geneva July 19, 2005
Coordinates: 61 ° 7 ′ 15.4 ″ N , 76 ° 44 ′ 52.2 ″ E