Friday, December 26, 2014

OIL SPILLS INTO BLACK SEA NEAR RUSSIAN PORT AFTER PIPELINE LEAK




Oil spills into Black Sea near Russian port after pipeline leak











Russia: State of emergency declared after oil spill



Published in Oil Industry News on Friday, 26 December 2014







A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian Black Sea town of Tuapse after a burst pipeline spewed oil into the body of water.




Local authorities declared a state of emergency in the town on Thursday, as more than 300 workers battled stormy weather during cleanup efforts, according to a statement on the Krasnodar regional government website.




“There is a state of emergency,” the statement read, adding, “Work is complicated by a storm, with waves two to three meters (up to 10 feet) high.”




Approximately 8.4 cubic meters (296.6 cubic feet) of oil has leaked into the Tuapse River, which empties into the Black Sea, according to ChernomorTransneft, a subsidiary of Russia’s main oil transport company Transneft.




The pipeline burst due to a landslide late Tuesday, the company added.



Meanwhile, environmental groups have warned that the volume of the spill may be up to 100 times greater than claimed by Transneft.




A spill of about 500 to 700 tons (nearly 800 cubic meters or over 28,250 cubic feet) already polluted 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) of the Black Sea shore, the World Wildlife Fund said on Thursday.




The organization also accused Transneft and Rosneft, a major Russian oil company, of failing to act quickly and understating the real extent of the damage.



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Oil spills into Black Sea near Russian port after pipeline leak



By Maxim Nazarov and Gleb Gorodyankin



MOSCOW Wed Dec 24, 2014 6:44am EST
 



(Reuters) - A leak on a major Russian oil pipeline caused a spill in the Black Sea near the port of Tuapse on Wednesday where officials said stormy weather was hampering efforts to assess and respond to the mishap.




"Some quantity of oil has spilled into the sea," Sergei Proskurin, first deputy captain of the port of Tuapse, told Reuters.




He said the size of the spill was unclear and that emergencies services were working to deploy temporary floating barriers to contain the spill but were being delayed by the stormy conditions.




Tuapse is a busy industrial and oil port but is located close to many Russian Black Sea resorts. It is just 118 km (73 miles) from the town of Sochi which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.




Two Tuapse residents told Reuters they had seen oil in the sea and in a river along which the pipeline runs toward the Tuapse oil refinery operated by state oil firm Rosneft.



"I can see dark spots on the river... The sea is stormy. I can't say it is fully covered in oil but there is plenty of oil in the port and on berths, not to mention the coast line," said a worker at the refinery who asked not to be named.




Russia's emergencies ministry confirmed the leak but declined to comment on the size of the spill. Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft was quoted by local media as saying the pipeline was shut after the leak.







Tuapse borders the resort city of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympic Games were held in February.




Rosneft said work at the refinery was unaffected as it was drawing crude from its stocks.