In the Ukhta District, there has been an oil spill on the pipeline of the Yareganeft Enterprise (owned by LUKOIL-Komi). Citing their source, eco-activists reported a spill of at least 100 m3 of fluid. The LUKOIL-Komi Company stated that the volume was still under definition, and workers were remedying the effects of the accident. The Save Pechora Committee (SPC) reported the accident on December 10.
Eco-activists said that the oil spill occurred approximately on December 6. According to them, the oil flooded at least 450 m along the pipeline.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, an area within the boundaries of a land plot allocated for the oil pipeline and 2 thousand m2 outside it were polluted. At the same time, the Pozhnya-Yol Stream flows 150 m from the oil gathering point, and there is an underground water supply of Ukhta 5 km downstream.
Valery Torlopov, a member of the Save Pechora Committee and the Civil Control Movement, inspected the oil spill area on December 9. He told 7x7 that there were five power lines next to the oil pipeline in that area. Activists suggest that this adjacency could cause earth currents (a phenomenon that causes metal corrosion) and the accident itself. Torlopov pointed out that there had already been a breaching there on October 30. There is also a power line there.
As LUKOIL-Komi’s press relations service told 7x7, the loss of piping integrity caused the accident. Employees of the company have responded to the site.
— We are working on remedying the effects of the loss of piping integrity. Public authorities have been notified of the accident. The circumstances, including the area of the floating oil spill over the terrain and its volume, are under definition. There is no threat of it entering water bodies.
In early November, there was a fire during drilling operations at the Yareganeft Oil Mine, owned by LUKOIL-Komi. They were performed by the employees of Neftegazmash LLC. 80 people were evacuated from the mine, the fate of two people remained unknown for several days. The office of criminal investigations of the Investigating Committee of Russia in the Komi Republic opened a criminal case under the article on violation of safety rules in hazardous facilities (Article 217 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The court pronounced miners who disappeared during the fire dead. The decision allowed flooding the mine.