Oil spill in Novorossiysk 400 thousand times exceeded official data

The cause of the ecological disaster in the Black Sea was an accident during work in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). The company itself, having admitted the fact of an emergency, initially estimated the area of the spill at only 200 square meters.

“At the CPC Marine Terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereevka, while loading the Minerva Symphony tanker (Greek flag, Piraeus port of residence) on the remote mooring facility (TLU No. 1), oil was released. The spill area was about 200 sq. meters, volume - about 12 cubic meters", - quoted by" Novaya Gazeta "message of the company.

However, when, comparing the data from satellites, the scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated, it turned out that the real area of oil pollution reached almost 80 square kilometers.

A day after the accident, the oil slick swam into the open sea, stretching 19 kilometers from the coast.

The incident with a crude oil spill on a Greek tanker occurred on August 7. According to CPC, the cause of the disaster was a malfunction of the internal cavity of the hydraulic compensator on the outboard mooring device.

On the same day, the company said that the consequences of the accident were "eliminated".

“To localize the consequences of the incident, the forces and means of a professional rescue team (17 vessels) were promptly involved, booms were set up, four oil-gathering systems and tanks for collecting oil were involved. Interaction with specialized regulatory state bodies has been organized. On August 7, at 22.42 Moscow time, the oil spill was contained, and the oil spill response was completed. Work is underway to monitor the Black Sea. To measure the state of water and air, independent laboratories have been involved, which carry out sampling in the territories adjacent to the Marine Terminal”, - the company said.

The CPC pipeline system is one of the largest investment projects in the energy sector with the participation of foreign capital in the CIS. The length of the Tengiz - Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,511 km; this route transports more than two-thirds of all Kazakhstan's export oil, as well as raw materials from Russian fields, including those located in the Caspian. The CPC Marine Terminal is equipped with three remote mooring devices (TLUs) that allow for the safe loading of tankers at a considerable distance from the coast, including in adverse weather conditions.

CPC shareholders: Federal Agency for State Property Management represented by PJSC Transneft (trust management) - 24%, CPC Company - 7%, JSC NC KazMunayGas - 19%, Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC - 1.75%, Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company - 15%, LUKARCO BV - 12.5%, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company - 7.5%, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited - 7.5%, BG Overseas Holdings Limited - 2%, Eni International NANVSar .l. - 2% and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC - 1.75%.