Unguarded place: why SIBUR company did not warn about a possible danger on the Ob river

From the warning signs - only "do not drop the anchor", and that's it. The local residents could only guess that a product pipeline was passing under the water.

Fishermen say that before the patrols monitored the situation, but now it is not. At the same time, the product pipeline is already 20 years old. Why the “aged” artery was no longer monitored is unknown. On March 6, when the accident occurred, the fishermen themselves acted as patrols. And at first, the firefighters could not understand who set the river on fire. “The first thing is the smell of gasoline, because initially it seemed to us that it smells like gasoline, we felt it in January 10th, for the first time”, - fisherman Andrey Yatsun told Muksun.fm.

The broad fraction of light hydrocarbons (BFLH), which was in the pipe at the time of the accident, is one of the most dangerous for transportation. All over the world, they prefer to burn it in the field, since when combined with air, it can behave unpredictably.

Presumably, SiburTyumenGaz "drives" BFLH through a pipe to Tobolsk at Neftekhim. The pipe runs not only under water, but also crosses highways. In the event of a leak, BFLHs do not volatilize, but spread along the route or under the ice.

Yatsun suggests that the cotton followed by a fire occurred on the Ob River due to the fact that the fisherman's snowmobile, instead of the air needed to run the engine, “grabbed” a wide fraction of light hydrocarbons. As a result of the emergency, the fisherman was injured and the snowmobile burned down. Not long before the accident, many more people were passing through. Depending on the trajectory, they could die.

“At the moment it is known only about the installation of sensors on federal highways adjacent to the Yugorsky bridge. It was not possible to find out whether the equipment was installed in other places of the pipe, whether it works, who is checking it. The example with Ob has shown that they are in no hurry to warn citizens about a possible danger”, - writes Muksun.fm.

BFLH is supplied to ZapSibNeftekhim from a single northern product pipeline - both Yamal and Yugra are entangled in “arteries”. Moreover, broad fractions are “driven” through the districts to Tobolsk in an unprocessed form with a high ethane content (a substance of the fourth hazard class). Then the plant is neutralized and divided into fractions.

“It turns out that the holes for the fish were drilled in the river for a reason. The lack of oxygen could have been caused not by frost, as the officials said, but by an ethane leak after the accident”, - says Muksun.fm.

The largest accident caused by a BFLH leak occurred in 1989 in Bashkiria on the Western Siberia - Ural - Volga product pipeline. As a result of the explosion, which hit the railway, 575 people died, more than 600 became disabled. This accident followed the same scenario as on the Ob. The day before, people also smelled gasoline, and the sensors showed a decrease in pressure in the pipe, but the operators on duty did not look for the leak. It turns out that nothing has changed over the years.

According to the law, the SiburTyumenGaz company is not obliged to inform the subordinate authorities about the operation of the underwater pipe. Apparently, no one was going to do this of their own accord. Since when has the use of water resources by oilmen ceased to require state registration in the water register? And who then verifies the proper use of the dangerous pipe and compliance with safety measures? One gets the impression that many of the questions raised after the accident on the Ob River will remain unanswered.

Let us remind you that the accident at the SIBUR pipeline near Nizhnevartovsk took place on March 6. A fire started after the cotton - the Ob burned for more than two weeks. As a result of the emergency, 56 tons of hydrocarbons got into the river. Moreover, WWF believes that the leak began on 18 February. In addition, the company, under threat of a trial, demands that the activist who published the video with the mass death of the fish remove footage from everywhere. SIBUR claims that the accident did not harm the environment, but experts think otherwise.

According to the Ministry of Energy, in 2019, more than 17 thousand accidents with oil spills occurred at the enterprises of the fuel and energy complex. Of these, 10.5 thousand cases were at oil pipelines. This means that oil accidents happen in Russia every half hour. Let us remind you that Norilsk Nickel paid 146 billion rubles for the damage caused to the environment after the spill of 20 thousand tons of oil. According to ecologists, one liter of oil deprives oxygen of 40 thousand liters of sea or river water, and one ton of oil pollutes 12 square km.