Rosprirodnadzor fines Gazprom for drilling violations on West Kamchatka shelf
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. Jan 18 (Interfax) - OJSC Gazprom has been brought to administrative responsibility in the form of a 400,000-ruble fine for violating the subsoil resource terms in drilling an exploratory well on the West Kamchatka shelf, the Kamchatka territory prosecutor's office said in a statement.
"[Natural resources watchdog] Rosprirodnadzor has fined OJSC Gazprom following an inspection initiated by the Kamchatka environmental prosecutor's office. The inspection uncovered three serious violations committed by Gazprom while implementing the license for subsoil resource use with the goal of geological survey, exploration and hydrocarbon production within the West Kamchatka subsoil section located in the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk," senior aide to the Kamchatka inter-district environmental prosecutor Alexei Blyakher told Interfax.
Gazprom began drilling a well on the West Kamchatka shelf despite a negative conclusion by the state environmental review. The company also failed to comply with the requirements of the Water Code on receiving authorization documents for water use, he said.
"Besides that, even if the state environmental review had been positive, under its license, Gazprom would could drill exploratory well N1 at the initial structure of the West Kamchatka section only until July 22, 2011. And work only began in September," Blyakher said.
The West Kamchatka license block is in the Sea of Okhotsk and measures 62,440 square km. Rosneft previously held an exploration license for the block but this expired on August 1, 2008 and it was handed to Gazprom.
Drilling of the exploratory well commenced on September 3 with the help of the self-elevating drilling rig Kolskaya, which capsized in the Sea of Okhotsk during a December 18 storm while it was being towed from the west coast of Kamchatka to Sakhalin. Sixty-seven people were onboard Kolskaya at the time, over half of whom were from Murmansk. The authorities managed to rescue 14 people from the water. Another 17 were found dead, and the rest are missing.