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I Executive Article I
“The joint work, built on the principles of openness and transparency, will allow us not only to use the most modern solutions in the company’s work but also to make a feasible contribution to protecting the nature of the Arctic.”
Andrei Bugrov
Senior Vice President, Environmental Protection
Nornickel.
The world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, as well as a major producer of platinum and copper, reports that on June 30, the Norilsk Nickel Board of Directors held a regular meeting on the incident of a fuel spill in Norilsk. The company’s management informed the council members about the progress of the spill response and spoke about a long-term program to monitor permafrost and restore the environment. He also introduced Senior Vice President Sustainability.
On May 29, 2020, an incident occurred at the CHPP-3 of Norilsk (Kayerkan district): due to the sudden subsidence of the supports that had served for more than 30 years without complaints, the diesel fuel storage tank was damaged, resulting in a fuel leak.
The divisions of the Polar Division of Norilsk Nickel and the Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company (NTEK JSC, part of the Norilsk Nickel Group) immediately began to eliminate the consequences of the spill of oil products. By the morning of May 30, more than 100 tons of oil products were pumped out and collected in the adjacent territory. The contaminated soil was replaced, the surface was treated with sorbents. The entire amount of contaminated soil was transported for temporary storage to the territory with a waterproof coating, where the ingress of oil into the environment is excluded. In the near future, the collected petroleum products will be disposed of.
The Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel held its first meeting on the incident at TPP-3 in Norilsk and the spill of diesel fuel. The board of directors re-examined the situation with the oil spill in Norilsk on June 30, 2020. Representatives of the company’s management informed the council about the progress of the accident. During the work more than 33 thousand tons of water-fuel mixture and more than 172 thousand tons of contaminated soil were collected. According to management estimates, more than 90% of the spilled fuel was collected.
The management presented to the council members a long-term program of liquidation of the consequences of the accident and compensation for environmental damage, as well as the company’s proposals for regular monitoring of the state of production facilities in connection with permafrost issues and the depreciation of existing funds.
The management also supported the proposal of the board of directors to introduce the position of senior vice president in charge of ecology and environmental protection. This position will be occupied by Andrey Bugrov, who has been working at Norilsk Nickel since 2013 and is well acquainted with the environmental agenda of the company. In addition, the post of Deputy Director for Ecology will be introduced in the Polar Division of Nornickel.
“Sustainable development and improvement of the environmental situation in the regions where the company operates is one of the key priorities of Norilsk Nickel. The program to reduce environmental impact is in the active phase, but we have a lot of work ahead. For several years, Norilsk Nickel has worked to reduce its environmental impact. Today we are faced with more serious problems that are relevant for all people around the world – climate change and its impact on the Arctic region and our activities. To solve these problems, we have created an independent task force of the Board of Directors on environmental issues. We will use the services of independent specialized companies and other resources to help investigate current problems, as well as to monitor progress in the implementation of our world-class environmental programs. ”
Andrei Bugrov, in turn, noted that Norilsk Nickel intends to intensify cooperation with Russian and foreign scientists and relevant organizations involved in the ecology of the Arctic and permafrost to jointly study permafrost and find solutions to improve the safety of industrial operations in the Arctic region. “The joint work, built on the principles of openness and transparency, will allow us not only to use the most modern solutions in the company’s work, but also to make a feasible contribution to protecting the nature of the Arctic,” said Andrei Bugrov.