Sergei Donskoi: Good afternoon, we addressed a fairly wide range of issues related to the exploration and development of the shelf and marine areas during today’s meeting. In particular, we focused in great detail on the Caspian Sea. It’s a very promising area in terms of reserve replacement and development. Over one billion tonnes of reserves have been discovered here, and chances are good that more will be discovered. Of course, we must be careful with regard to the environment and industrial safety. Today, we focused on specific issues, such as improving the efficiency of reserve replacement and protecting this fragile environment against technological and industrial impact.
We had a very detailed discussion of industrial safety. Of course, we have many questions here, especially in the context of recent events surrounding the Prirazlomnaya platform. We must establish a system in which there are no threats to life or industrial facilities, because these are hazardous operations. Today we toured the platform and could see for ourselves that these facilities are extremely hazardous precisely because the operations are very complicated. Therefore, we should make sure that the entire system is effective.
Of course, we touched upon the international division of the Caspian seabed. This is a complicated issue, and I believe it would be difficult to work out a mutually acceptable solution at this meeting. Anyway, it will affect the way this Caspian Sea project is effectively implemented. Mr Novak will cover this in his remarks.
Alexander Novak: As has already been mentioned, today we discussed in great detail the security of upstream and downstream operations and the oil and gas industry in its entirety. You are aware that the federal law on fuel and energy facility security entered in force on July 1, 2012. In this respect, a great deal of work to create the regulatory framework has been performed, which we also discussed today. Seven Government resolutions have been adopted and, generally speaking, the corresponding regulatory framework has been created.
In general, 12,500 facilities, of which 1,500 are in the oil and gas industry, are eligible for protection against acts of terrorism and qualify as hazardous operations. This work has almost been completed. This creates additional opportunities to improve security arrangements.
Among other things, we discussed unresolved issues related to interactions between federal executive bodies today. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev issued an instruction to review this issue and put together proposals designed to coordinate the activities of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Federal Service for Supervision of Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management and the Federal Service for Supervision of Transport that would improve the interaction of federal authorities, including the possibility of creating one-stop shop so that companies can obtain necessary documents and results of expert analyses quicker and more efficiently.
Also today, we spoke about the establishment of liquidation funds to provide relief for environmental damage caused by wells that have been out of use for many years. This is a major issue that requires our undivided attention. These facilities are listed on the balance sheet of the Federal Agency for State Property Management as abandoned, so we should decide on who will deal with them.
In addition, we have discussed amendments to Federal Law No. 58 On the Subsoil regarding the licenses that have been issued prior to the amendments introduced in 2008. The Prime Minister issued an instruction to finally resolve this issue in 2013 and come up with appropriate proposals.
Speaking of other major issues related to the Astrakhan Region where we are today, the development of the Caspian seabed holds great promise. An instruction has been issued to consider dredging the Volga-Caspian Canal in order to improve the transport situation in the Astrakhan Region. This is a really important issue because it affects the financial side of the projects. The Ministry of Transport has been instructed accordingly.
We are ready to answer your questions.
Question: Was it the Prime Minister who issued this instruction?
Alexander Novak: Yes, correct. Everything we talked about today is related to the instructions issued by the Prime Minister.
Question: I have two questions. I’m aware that you are not in charge of the legal side of the issue, but you are still somewhat involved in this. What do you think the proper response to Greenpeace’s actions on Prirazlomnaya should be? The way it was done? Or some other way?
Sergei Donskoi: I would like to answer this question, because the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has been in contact with Greenpeace for many years now. Of course, we are familiar with their position regarding the Arctic. However, this kind of activism – and it’s been pointed out on many occasions – can harm not just the engineering facilities and the offshore field infrastructure which are already hazardous operations by virtue of their complexity, but the platform workers as well. Such actions should never be allowed precisely because of their potential consequences. In addition, we must also see things for what they are. It’s more than just an attack on private property. It’s an invasion of private property and a direct action against it. Speaking about offshore facilities... For example, Lukoil has a system in place where no one can get access to their facilities to prevent dangerous incidents. Greenpeace says that these facilities must be outfitted with means of environmental protection, but they themselves jeopardise such facilities which may lead precisely to ... Let's put it this way: if things are left out of control (you never know what can happen on offshore platforms), it could lead to certain consequences, including environmental consequences.
Such actions are carried out not only in Russia. They are fairly populist in nature, but can cause harm to humans and objects. We cannot support them in any way, even though we have Greenpeace members who sit on our ministry’s public board. Of course, we are open to discussions of the Arctic environment with Greenpeace, but certainly not like this. We cannot support such actions either.
Question: Do you think arresting them was the proper response?
Sergei Donskoi: It’s complicated. If someone shows up at an oil or gas field and starts acting aggressively, the local management will respond as necessary. Prirazlomnaya, even the international portion of the company that operates on land, is a very complex facility that is at risk at all times in the sense that things can explode or go awry in many other ways if you don’t follow the safety rules. Of course, everything must be protected accordingly. If someone shows up and acts like Greenpeace did, it creates risks and hazards, including for the people who work on this platform.
As for the response, this is for law enforcement agencies to decide. In any case, they had to stop this action. A fair amount of force has always been used to stop such actions internationally, so our response was quite appropriate. It’s up to the courts now. Anyway, it had to be stopped, and it was stopped in a proper manner, I believe.
