A conflict is underway in the Samara region between "Green patrol" environmental NGO and TNK-BP Russian-British Oil Company. The greens say TNK-BP is not doing anything to protect the Volga banks from pollution. Oilers say they are trying to fix the mistakes of their predecessors
Green Patrol has asked the Prosecutor General Office and environmental authorities to inspect the works of TNK-BP affiliates in the Samara region. Ecologists accuse the two plants - SNPZ and SNP - of "major" pollution of the Volga and the protected territory on its banks with oil products. Green Patrol has documented many examples of such pollution in the area close to SNP plant near the city of Saratov.
Green Patrol's Roman Pukalov has told Expert Online the pollution was not a result of a production breakdown or failure, oil and oil products leak through the soil towards the Volga from TNK-BP's facilities systematically. Uvekskaya oil base, the oldest one ion Russia, causes damage to the country's environment which is estimated at many billion rubles a year, Pukalov has said, adding that TNK-BP are not doing anything to stop it.
TNK-BP's spokesman Aleksandr Shadrin said some pollution was possible near Uvekskaya, but claimed his company had been fighting for five years with the "legacy" of the Soviet-era system of oil waste management, spending vast amounts on nature protection projects - removing polluted soil and underground oil waste reservoirs. Production line at the SNPZ is also gradually modernized to make it more environment-friendly.
Of course, Green Patrol activists know what TNK-BP is trying to do, but they want the oilers to do more, and to spend much more. It is clear, though, that TNK-BP is not ready for more drastic steps, and neither is any other oil company in the country.
Vadim Ponomarev
Illustration: Comstock complete / Fotolink
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