*[Enwl-eng] [EWNC] The project of Rosneft and ENI to drill Russianoffshore in Val Shatsky could spell the end of the Black Sea
ENWLine
"ENVIRONMENTAL WATCH ON NORTH CAUCASUS"
September 25, 2017
THE PROJECT OF ROSNEFT AND ENI TO DRILL RUSSIAN OFFSHORE IN VAL SHATSKY
COULD SPELL THE END OF THE BLACK SEA
This week, the drilling platform Scarabeo 9 is getting closer to the Russian shore of the Black Sea to start exploratory drilling in the Val Shatsky license area. The giant platform has cleared the Bosphorus Strait on September 18 and is expected to begin work at the end of the year.
The project of exploratory drilling on Val Shatsky has effectively started. The operator of the project is a joint company of Russia’s Rosneft oil giant and Italy’s ENI, called Shatskmorneftegaz, registered in Luxembourg. In May, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin and ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi have signed an agreement for exploratory drilling in the Black and Barents Seas.
The project in the Black Sea carries huge environmental risks because drilling will be done at the depth of up to 2200 meters in aggressive sulphurous environment. To block a blast of hydrocarbons from the well at such a depth will be extremely difficult.
To compare, the Deepwater Horizon accident happened at the depth of just 1500 meters without environment of sulphorous sea. In case of a similar accident in the Black Sea, neither Rosneft nor Russia have any similar sort of resources.
A much smaller scale accident in 2013 near the village of Khankov, where Rosneft could not liquidate an accident at an oil well, shows just how incapable the company is to deal with oil accidents on the shelf. Furthermore, in 2007, during a naval catastrophe in the Strait of Kerch, Russian authorities showed they are incapable of dealing with even a small amount of leaked fuel oil.
These factors make it clear that the threat of catastrophic consequences in the event of an accident are very high when it comes to drilling on the shelf of the Black Sea.
Making matters even worse, the state environmental assessment done for this project is highly dubious, both from the point of view of its legitimacy and from the point of view of the project’s taking into account the environmental risks and accident prevention planning.
Russian citizens and environmental organizations don’t know anything about how the safety of this project is ensured, since the project did not go through the required public hearings process, and the procedure of environmental impact assessment has been left in secret from the public.
Environmental Watch on North Caucasus therefore concludes that the realization of the Val Shatsky drilling project is environmentally unacceptable.
Information from Environmental Watch on North Caucasus
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