Entrepreneurs of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Have Set Their Sights on the Waste of Oil Workers. The Damage to Nature is Estimated at Billions
Sludge containing hydrocarbons will be burned in Muravlenko.
Businessmen from Bolshaya Tyumen are massively preparing for the introduction of new technologies for the neutralization and processing of oily waste. In addition, as early as 2024, a landfill for pyrolysis and waste disposal of III-IV hazard classes can be launched in Yamal. The initiators of the project assure that it will be completely safe for the residents of Muravlenko, which is located a few kilometers from the potential site. Despite the active entrepreneurs, environmental experts believe that the situation with waste disposal in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is only getting worse every year. Service companies prefer to dump liquid waste into forests and open tundra, and the soil affected by the actions of oil workers is left in place, only covered with clean soil on top. Enormous profits are accumulated on the accounts of contractors of oil and gas companies that do not put into practice their “new developments” for the production of man-made soils from waste. Similar examples are recorded annually by independent ecologists. The consequence of such work in Ugra is the extrusion of former favorites with Yamal roots, who entered into multimillion-dollar contracts “during the time of Kobylkin,” from the market.
Near Muravlenko, the construction of a landfill for the neutralization and disposal of oily waste may soon start. The EIA materials for this project were submitted for public hearings by Stroyservis LLC (Khanymey village, Purovsky district). The site for the construction of the facility is located 3.5 kilometers east of the city. The distance from the highway Surgut – Salekhard does not exceed 900 meters. Previously, this company received this site on lease from the Muravlenko City Hall.
It is planned that at this landfill they will be engaged in the neutralization of oil-contaminated soils, drill cuttings and metal-containing waste. Back in 2021, the North Urals Interregional Directorate of Rosprirodnadzor issued Stroyservis a license to collect, transport and dispose of waste of III-IV hazard classes.
“Utilization of HCO is based on the method of thermal destruction (at temperatures up to 900-1000 degrees Celsius) of the carbon-containing components of the raw material after preliminary mixing of the raw material with inert additives (sand) up to 20% hydrocarbon content in the material sent for recycling. As a result of this process, a product is obtained in the form of a free-flowing mineral residue. The capacity of the plant for feedstock is from 2 to 6 cubic meters. m/h,” says the project documentation. The mineral residue formed during the pyrolysis is planned to be used as an analogue of sand for construction work or reclamation.
The head and owner of the company, Oleg Baran, told “Pravda UrFO” that not all waste will go through the heat treatment process, some will go for recycling.
“We have regular customers from the oil and gas sector of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, with whom we have signed long-term contracts. We plan to work with deposits around Muravlenko. Immediately after the state examination, we expect to start construction and launch the landfill in 2024,” the source said. At the same time, he did not disclose the planned volume of investments, specifying that the waste incineration technology had already been tested at the Sutorminskoye field.
The situation with the neutralization and disposal of oil production waste is extremely acute for the regions with raw materials, primarily the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, where some of the fields are simply cut off from the mainland, and there is no proper control over the situation. “The Greens” have repeatedly identified landfills with oily waste, which cause enormous damage to the environment. Sometimes, even if oil and gas giants sign contracts for waste disposal, their contractors limit themselves to only nominal work, ignoring technical regulations. In fact, the sludge is taken to illegal landfills, as happened in Nizhnevartovsk in the floodplain of the Vakh River.
“Pravda UrFO” spoke in detail about the problems with the reclamation of the territory affected by the actions of service workers. By reducing the cost of work in a row, Yevgeny Slyusar received Econadzor from the city administration. The contractor did not carry out mandatory work on the extraction and disposal of hazardous soil. No one took out the sludge, and under the surface sprinkled with sand there were wastes mixed with soil in the form of a “paraffin-soaked mass with a characteristic odor.” As a result, the contract was terminated, and an agreement was signed with a new contractor. Moreover, the work is planned to be carried out only in a small part of the affected area.
“The situation with oil-containing waste is not improving. The rule of common sense: “invest money – there will be no fines” – does not work. Inspections of commercial companies are still prohibited, there is no proper control, as a result, subsoil users ignore the legislation. If they are not checked, they take the chance to save money, not to work according to technical regulations. First of all, they save on security. If it is impossible to check, the ecology suffers. Why is there an illegal oil sludge acceptance market in these regions to this day? Because it is more profitable for companies to pay less, saving on a large transport shoulder, which will have to be done to licensed landfills. And illegal immigrants give documents that everything is legal, and no one is interested in what they do next with waste. And they are simply buried in the ground. The figures of damage to nature are wild, we are talking about billions of rubles,” said the head of the public organization “Green Front” Sergey Vinogradov.
It is worth noting that recently there are more and more people who want to enter the market of services for the neutralization of drilling and oil sludge. So, at present, the deputy of the Regional Duma of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Mikhail Serdyuk, and the Bioshlam LLC company belonging to him are preparing to launch the technology “Neutralization and disposal of drilling waste to obtain a mixture of soil-sludge”. It is noteworthy that the company does not have the licenses necessary to work with waste of hazard classes III-IV. And the main sphere of interests of the deputy-businessman until recently was construction. Experts of the public organization “Environmental Safety of Ugra” are currently analyzing the technology proposed by Serdyuk. Environmentalists will soon publish the comments they have on this development.
“Working with oil workers’ waste is a very profitable niche that is not fully occupied today. Accordingly, the applicants began to invent new technologies, try to get a license. Serdyuk, when he makes the technology and takes the license, will be able, if desired, in fact, without doing anything, to receive money. There are many such examples. Even when Kobylkin (ex-governor of YANAO Dmitry Kobylkin. – Editor’s note) was the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, several Yamal companies were brought to Yugra, including Gazholodmash, which had both a license and technology, although there are reasonable questions about this technology. We examined the territory, took samples. In fact, nothing was recycled at their sites, the pollution both was and remained after their work,” Anatoly Krista, the head of Ugra Ecosecurity, outlined the situation.
The Gazkholodmash company was engaged in the reclamation of the slurry barns of RN-Yuganskneftegaz, and was also responsible for the disposal of drilling waste of the company. After the appeals of public figures, the specialists of Rosprirodnadzor recorded numerous facts of violations, and not only the contractor, but also the customer of the works were brought to justice.
“There are already court decisions on which damage in the region of 100 million rubles has been proven. Yuganskneftegaz, of course, did not like it. The contractor’s services were refused. Now new applicants are appearing. And if we talk in general about the damage to the environment that is caused annually by drilling and oil–containing waste, we are not talking about one dozen billion,” Anatoly Krista stressed.
It is worth noting that some oil and gas companies have started to independently develop and approve technologies for handling oil-containing waste. Darwin-Service LLC presented a draft environmental impact assessment of the “Regulations for the production of technogenic soil based on waste from the oil industry”. The discussion of the new technology will be held in Megion, but it was not possible to quickly clarify which company will use it for work. It is only known that the subsoil user plans to use it for natural restoration works on the territory of oil and gas fields in Nizhnevartovsk, Surgut and Nefteyugansk districts of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.
“Pravda UrFO” will continue to monitor developments.
