Kazakh Paper Eyes Environmental Damage Caused By Oil Company

Text of report by Kazakh newspaper Megapolis on 3 June

The Kyzyl Arda environmental protection prosecutor’s office has made an analysis of the damage inflicted on the Kenlik oil field as a result of man-made disaster.

We recall that oil gushed and caught fire as a result of a loss of drill mud at the depth of over 1.5 km while drilling an oil and gas well on the contract territory of the South Oil LLP [name as transliterated] in the aforementioned oil field on 9 March. The drilling was being carried out by specialists from the Syrdaryamunay company. At that time the rig burnt down. The fire was put down literally by forces of the whole country by 18 March. The rescuers classified it as a grade one accident.

The land area polluted by oil products at Kenlik amounts to over six hectares. A chemical analysis of the soil samples taken from around the well showed that raw oil in the soil exceeds the maximum permissible concentration by 700 times. In addition, over 96,000 cu.m. of gas and nearly 225 t of oil were burnt; and over 25 cu.m. of gas and over 64 t of oil were discharged into the environment.

Regarding this incident, the Kyzyl Arda environmental protection prosecutor’s office has made a formal request to take measures to reclaim damages inflicted on wildlife, as well as to institute administrative proceedings against those responsible.

On the basis of this, the Aral-Syrdarya environment department has imposed a fine amounting to 233,600 tenge, and sent a protocol on administrative violation to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The conclusions of the commission investigating the cause of the accident have also been announced. The statement said: “it has been established that the accident took place because management of the work was poor and control over the technological processes was weak in both the South Oil and Syrdaryamunay companies. A fine worth around 47,000 tenge was imposed on the vice-president of Syrdaryamunay in charge of production. The deputy director of the Kyzyl Arda branch of the South Oil company also paid a fine amounting to 29,000 tenge for not reporting the accident connected with an emission of pollutants into the environment.”

Incidentally, it was revealed during the checks that there were no documents confirming the right to use the land plot of well No 8 and driveways to it. The administrative proceedings instituted against South Oil in this connection will not entail such absurd sums of fines as the ones imposed for other “wrongdoings”. It amounts to around 400,000 tenge.

What has to be done now is to levy real money from the light- minded industrialists. The calculation made by specialists from the Aral-Syrdarya environmental protection department indicates that the damage inflicted on the state as a result of the conflagration of oil and gas mixture at Kenlik amounted to 86,159,428 tenge. The whole of this sum, up to the last penny, was shown in the prosecutor office’s statement of claim for compulsory collection of the cost of the damage from South Oil.

However, time will show whether the industrialists will pay for all of it. There were cases when subsurface users in the Aral zone disputed sums and damages as a whole, as well as statements of claim.

Originally published by Megapolis, Almaty, in Russian 3 Jun 08 p2.

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