Providing environmental safety Print version

Environmental activity of the Company is performed in accordance with the Federal law "On Environmental Protection" and the activities meet all environmental standards and regulations taking into account the norms of international documents of the federal as well as of the regional levels. The Company passed certification of management systems ensuring environmental safety, health and industrial safety in accordance with the requirements of international ISO 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:2007 standards. Certification is performed in accordance with the OAO Tatneft policy of industrial, occupational and environmental safety and in the framework of the special prolonged Environmental Program of OAO Tatneft, designed for the period from 2000 to 2015.

The program envisages further reduction of the technological equipment failure rate and exclusion of the production activities negative impact on the environment. As part of this program the Company provides for performance of complex organizational and technical measures, including introduction of a broad industrial environmental control in the area of the Company’s divisions operation and training of the environmental services employees.

The Company’s environmental safety and nature preservation activity is carried out within the framework of the uniform integrated "Policy of OAO TATNEFT in the area of industrial, occupational and environmental safety".

One of the most important tasks of preventing the environmental pollution in the development of oil fields is maintaining accident-free operation of oil facilities subject to corrosion impact.
To this end, OAO TATNEFT has designed and implemented the following set of the corrosion protection technologies: polyethylene lining of pipes and their internal polymer coating; use of fiberglass pipes; protective coating of the pipe inner surface; protection of pipes with application of cement/sand coating; protection of tanks/vessels inner surface with application of paint/varnish materials, electro-chemical means of protection, corrosion inhibitors; application of corrosion inhibitors to slow down corrosion processes in the pipeline networks; protection of the bottom and external tanks' surfaces from soil corrosion; cathodic protection of the well casing outer surface, protection of the inner casing surface through application of the liquid corrosion inhibitor (AKZH) and M-1X packers.

Since the beginning of the 90-ies of the last century the large-scale introduction of these anticorrosion technologies has radically reduced failures quantity, and the specific frequency per 1 km of pipeline is now less than 0.1 in the oil gathering system and 0.05 in the system of the formation pressure maintenance).

Air protection

The Company implements the program for optimization and reconstruction of the oil and gas collecting systems. 41.8 km of gas lines were replaced in 2009, diagnostics were performed on 455 km of gas lines, product lines and process pipelines, and electrochemical soil corrosion protection was provided for 22.6 km of gas and product pipelines. At the moment there are 43 hydrocarbon vapor recovery units (VRU) operating at the facilities of the Company.

The volume of hydrocarbon vapors recovered by VRUs at OAO TATNEFT tank farms in 2009 amounted to 62 thousand tons. In total, the Company's gross emissions of polluting matters into the air during the last 20 years were reduced by 3.2 times. For the purpose of rational use of natural resources the Company developed and approved a special program of OAO TATNEFT for utilization of associated petroleum gas at the Company’s facilities for the period of 2009-2013. The program envisages increasing of the associated petroleum gas utilization (APG) to the level of 95 %. At present TATNEFT effectively utilizes about 756.5 million cubic meters of APG per year accounting for about 94 % of the total volume of gas produced by the Company. In order to reduce emissions from moving sources gas cylinder equipment was mounted in the reported period at 315 vehicles of motor transport operating in OAO TATNEFT. The total number of vehicles re-equipped and operating with gas fuel is 1,546 pieces today. Air control in settlements located in the area of the Company's activity is maintained according to the approved schedule. No excessive concentration was detected in 114 settlements in 2009.

The total amount of 542 million rubles was spent for air protection during the reported year.

Protection and Rational Use of Water Resources

In 2009 for the purpose of stable and trouble-free operation of oil-field facilities and in order to increase their industrial and ecological safety the Company produced 206 km of metal/plastic and 310 km of polymer coated pipes, 5,864 tons of corrosion inhibitors, including 5,116 tons for covering own needs, cathode protection equipment was provided for casing strings in 1,169 wells, while the sacrificial protection was provided for 549 km of oil and water lines, 2,174 km of pipelines were tested. The system of waste water drainage was erected at 266 production facilities of the oil and gas producing divisions, the system of recycling industrial waste drains was put into operation at the Tumutuk water treatment facility. The works performed resulted in more than 2 fold reduction.

The volume of water used for the needs of OAO TATNEFT in 2009 amounted to 31.8 million cubic meters, with the share of the fresh water amounting to 30.9 million cubic meters. 600 fixed oil-trapping facilities, slick bars and bio-ponds are maintained in the operable condition in order to prevent surface pollution of the water bodies with oil.
As a result of measures taken for protection of water bodies, concentration of chlorides and oil products in the main rivers of the Company's area of operation does not exceed standard MAC levels. There are over 500 springs used by population as potable water sources, which were cleaned, capped and architecturally improved in the territory of the Company's activity. Over 2,298 million rubles were spent for protection and rational use of water resources in 2009.

Protection and Rational Use of Land Resources

The major task in land resources protection is optimization of oil-field facilities location, and prevention of the soil fertility disturbance. The Company spent over 1,088 million rubles in 2009 for protection and rational use of lands, including 67 million rubles for reclamation of soils disturbed by economic activity. This allowed continuing positive tendency towards steady reduction of disturbed agricultural lands as a result of emergency situations.

Industrial Wastes Disposal

The Company works continuously on reduction and utilization of wastes formed as a result of technological processes of oil production by their processing, recycling and neutralization. Expenses for environmental protection from negative impact of production and consumption wastes in 2009 amounted to more than 1,021 million rubles. The total investments of OAO TATNEFT into ecological safety and environmental protection activities from all financing sources in 2009 amounted to 3, 929 million rubles.
Inspections performed by the state supervisory bodies of federal and local levels confirmed observance of legislative ecological requirements and norms by the Company.

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