Remediation

Among other environmental problems that TNK-BP inherited from its predecessor companies, it acquired ownership of more than 5,000 ha of land contaminated with oil, of hundreds of sludge and drill cuttings pits and several thousand tons of drilling waste. Most of these sites are located in West Siberia with ca. 80% of them concentrated at Samotlor. This field has now been in operation for more than thirty years, and clearly high environmental standards were not observed in the early phases of its development. Production peaked in the early 1980s but the environmental effects still persist.

TNK-BP has taken it upon itself to dismantle the inherited areas that have been contaminated by oil and drilling waste (we call this our ‘environmental legacy’). A special program was developed to dismantle these areas and more than $200 mln was allocated to this end. The program is revised and adjusted on an annual basis, thanks to progressin technology and new remediation expertise. As a result, ca. 2,500 hectares of land have been fully remediated and handed over to the authorized government commissions.

The company completed a comprehensive stock-take of contaminated lands in 2009. The resulting data turned out to be lower than company forecasts and corresponded with similar information held by the Government of the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous district. In addition, as a result of our research into land remediation and waste processing/neutralization technology, we have found that it was possible to optimize the applicable technological approaches, in particular, for contaminated soil cutoff technology. The appropriate recommendations for subsidiaries and project organizations will be drafted for implementation and introduction in 2010.

Over the course of 2009, we worked to contain and eliminate the “legacy” underground accumulation of oil products, in the territory adjacent to the Uvek oil depot, in order to prevent oil products getting potentially stuck in the Volga. For that purpose, we have carried out special research, developed and approved a template and are nearing completionof a drainage system. The construction is planned to be completed in Q2 2010.