Rosneft willing to work with environmentalists in construction of petrochemicals complex in Primorye
VLADIVOSTOK. Oct 3 (Interfax) - Rosneft has announced its willingness to work closely with environmental protection organizations in the construction of a petrochemicals complex in Primorye
A representative of the organizing committee of the Environmental Marathon conference in Vladivostok, at which Rosneft made its announcement, told Interfax that one of the central topics of discussion at the forum was the construction of a petrochemicals complex near the town of Vrangel in the urban district of Nakhodka. Rosneft subsidiary CJSC Eastern Petrochemical Company is performing the construction work.
Participants in the talks included representatives of Rosneft, NGOs and experts, the latter two of which made a host of complaints against Eastern Petrochemical Company and Rosneft directly. Among the points of contention were the width of the sanitary protection zone and the danger of placing the petrochemical complex's infrastructural elements on boggy soil, as well as the threat posed to endangered animals and plants.
A representative of the Russian state-owned oil company's central office assured the participants in Environmental Marathon that Rosneft "guarantees adherence to the strictest environmental standards in the construction and operation of the petrochemicals complex."
The design documentation for Eastern Petrochemical Company is currently in the preparation stage, and after it is ready the project will become a topic of wide public discussion, the Rosneft representative said.
Alexander Kazakov, a representative of the All-Russia Society for Environmental Protection, said that the society sent a message to Rosneft's management around a month ago airing the complaints of Primorye territory-based NGOs against Eastern Petrochemical Company and pointed out the need to observe the constitutional rights of the territory's inhabitants. In particular, the society indicated the right to a palatable environment and to reliable information on the state of this environment. As a solution to the situation, the society proposed initiating continuous public environmental monitoring of the project starting at present and enduring through to the launch of the new complex.
Representatives of Rosneft and the All-Russia Society for Environmental Protection came to an agreement to closely collaborate on public environmental monitoring of Eastern Petrochemical Company's project, in addition to providing environmentalists with all of the necessary information.
The scheme for interaction between Rosneft and the All-Russia Society for Environmental Protection will be discussed at a meeting in Moscow, which the participants said would take place in the near future.
The Coordinating Council for Environmental Problems of the Primorye territory expressed willingness to assist the All-Russia Society for Environmental Protection in preparing and conducting public environmental monitoring.
East Petrochemical Company was established to implement a project to build a petrochemicals complex in Nakhodka in the Primorye territory, with production at the new facility slated to start up in December 2016. The project's price tag is tentatively set at over $5 billion. The new complex will process up to 10 million tonnes of hydrocarbon material a year.
At the first stage, the complex will process naphtha and liquefied petroleum gases from the Komsomolsk Oil Refinery , as well as mixed naphtha from Angarsk Petrochemical Company. The project's first phase will have capacity of 3.4 million tonnes of material a year. After the implementation of the second and third stages, the complex will be able to process an additional 5 million tonnes of oil delivered from the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline and 1.5 million tonnes of gas condensate from the Sakhalin-3 project. There are plans to transition to the second and third stages in the third and fourth quarters of 2018, respectively.
